Can I adopt my special needs stepchild in South Dakota?

Yes, you can ask the South Dakota Circuit Court to approve a stepparent adoption of your special needs stepchild. The steps below are the ones South Dakota sets out for stepparent adoptions in general. If your child's disability raises a question that isn't covered here, the Circuit Court clerk in your county or an attorney can confirm how it applies to your situation.

Where you file: Stepparent adoptions are filed in the Circuit Court, and South Dakota has 66 counties. You file in your own county, and the clerk there can tell you about local forms, filing fees and scheduling.

Residency: South Dakota has no minimum residency period for this adoption.

Home study: For stepparent adoptions, the home study is waived under SDCL § 25-6-10.

Consent:

• If your child is 12 or older, their consent is required under SDCL § 25-6-5.
• If your child's disability affects their ability to understand or give consent, the data doesn't say how the court handles that. Please ask the Circuit Court clerk or an attorney about that specific point.
• The other legal parent's consent, or a basis for proceeding without it, is a separate question. One ground in South Dakota is abandonment for 6 months (SDCL § 25-6-4(2)). If the other parent is unknown, unreachable or likely to object, talk with an attorney about your facts.

Benefits and coverage questions: Parents of children with special needs often wonder about SSI, Medicaid, or other disability-based benefits. Those programs have their own rules, and nothing in South Dakota's adoption statutes answers how an adoption might affect them. Before you file, check with the agency that administers each benefit, and consider asking an attorney who knows disability benefits.

If your stepchild is an adult: Many families with a disabled stepchild are looking at adulthood, so here is how adult adoption works:

• Under SDCL 25-6-18, an adult may adopt another adult.
• The adoptee must have lived in your home for at least 6 months while under age 21, and this must appear in the petition. This is waived if the adoptee is your biological child.
• The petition must include a written agreement that the adoptee will be treated in all respects as your natural child.
• The adoptee's written consent is required.
• Adult adoptions generally take about 4-8 weeks.
• If your adult stepchild has a guardian or has limited capacity to consent, that is a fact-specific issue for the clerk or an attorney.

Timeline: A stepparent adoption of a minor child in South Dakota typically takes 3-6 months.

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