H 5226 will provide greater security to Rhode Island children and protect LGBTQ+ families by ensuring access to confirmatory adoption.

This straightforward and common sense bill promotes access to adoption and enables more children to be secured to their parents.

Confirmatory adoption is important for LGBTQ+ families and other families who need to confirm their parentage through an adoption decree. An adoption decree ensures recognition of parentage throughout all jurisdictions. After the Dobbs case in the U.S. Supreme Court, it is even more important for LGBTQ+ families to have access to legal protections for their families.

Under current adoption law, LGBTQ+ parents who wish to confirm parentage through adoption are forced to go through burdensome and unnecessary steps to adopt their own children. These steps can include an invasive home study or investigation, a minimum period of residency in the home, an in-person court hearing, and more.

These additional steps – which aren’t appropriate for people who are already parents to their children – can extend the time it takes to secure a confirmatory adoption and can make such an adoption entirely out-of-reach for some families because of cost. This leaves children and families vulnerable.

For parents seeking an adoption to confirm, rather than to establish, their parentage, H 5226 would eliminate unnecessary requirements and provide a streamlined path for such parents to petition a court for an adoption decree.

H 5226 was introduced by Representatives Kislak, Shekarchi, McEntee, Kazarian, Edwards, Craven, Caldwell, Vella-Wilkinson, Batista, and Ajello.