AB 1757 Summary

• Permits courts to extend parentage inquiries to licensed clinical social workers or licensed marriage and family therapists investigating stepparent adoptions.

• Requires hearings on petitions to declare a child free from parental custody and control to be held within 45 days of filing and allows courts to issue orders without trial if service is complete and no one contests.

• Expands who can witness a birth parent's waiver of the right to revoke relinquishment to include judicial officers and authorized representatives of licensed private adoption agencies (in or outside California) if the parent has independent legal counsel.

• Allows adoption petitions for non-dependent children to be filed in any county where the petitioner resides, the child was born or resides, an adoption agency is located, or the birth parents resided when signing placement agreements or relinquishment documents.

• Reduces adoption investigation fees from $4,500 to $1,550 for petitioners with agency adoption home studies less than 2 years old or valid preplacement evaluations less than one year old.