Kinship Adoption in Delaware: Rules, Process, and Requirements

Kinship adoption in Delaware often starts not with a planned decision but with a phone call. A family member's child has been removed from the home. A DFS worker is asking if you can take the child. You say yes — and then, weeks or months later, you start asking what happens next, legally, if reunification does not work out.

Or perhaps the situation is less acute: a grandparent who has been raising a grandchild for years, a family that has functioned as parents without ever making it official. Either way, kinship adoption in Delaware follows a specific legal path that is worth understanding before you are deep in it.

Who Qualifies as a Kinship Caregiver in Delaware

Delaware law does not define "kinship" by a specific degree of relationship in the adoption statute. For DFS purposes, "relative" typically means a person related by blood, marriage, or prior stable long-term relationship to the child. This includes:

• Grandparents
• Aunts and uncles
• Adult siblings
• Cousins (with appropriate DFS approval)
• Fictive kin — adults who are not biologically related but have had a long-term, family-like relationship with the child

For the purposes of the formal adoption petition under 13 Del. C. § 903, the petitioner must be over 21 and a Delaware resident. Close blood relatives have certain procedural advantages in the Family Court, including the potential for a waived or expedited home study.

The DFS Kinship Pathway

When a child enters DFS custody and a relative comes forward to care for them, DFS has a legal preference for placing the child with family before placing them with unrelated foster parents. This is consistent with Delaware's concurrent planning approach — the goal is permanency, and family placement is generally the least disruptive option for the child.

As a kinship caregiver through DFS, you become a licensed kinship foster parent. The licensing process includes background checks, a home study, and some (often abbreviated) training compared to the full PRIDE training for non-relative foster parents.

Kinship foster parents receive the same monthly foster care board payments as non-relative foster parents while the child is in care. The 2025 basic board rates range from approximately $397 to $511 per month depending on the child's age.

If reunification is ruled out and the permanency goal changes to adoption, you can proceed with the adoption petition after the termination of parental rights is finalized.

The Independent Kinship Pathway (No DFS Involvement)

Not all kinship situations involve DFS. A grandparent who has been caring for a grandchild for two years because the birth parent asked them to — without any DFS involvement — can still petition to adopt. The process is:

1. Confirm the child has resided in your home for at least one year (required under 13 Del. C. § 913 for stepparent and kinship placements before the petition can be filed)
2. Secure consent from both biological parents, or proceed to a Termination of Parental Rights petition if either parent does not consent
3. File the adoption petition in the Delaware Family Court in your county
4. Attend the finalization hearing

The Family Court has discretion to waive the home study requirement for close blood relatives when the child has already been living with the petitioner for a substantial period. This is not automatic — you or your attorney must request the waiver, and the court must approve it. In practice, many kinship adoptions by grandparents and close relatives do proceed without a full home study when the placement has been stable.

Consent and Termination of Parental Rights

This is often the most complicated part of kinship adoption. The situation determines what you need:

Both parents consent: Each signs a notarized Consent to Adoption (Form 158). Delaware provides a 14-day revocation window after signing. After 14 days, the consent is irrevocable absent fraud or duress. Proceed to filing the adoption petition.

One parent is deceased: Provide a certified death certificate in lieu of their consent.

One or both parents do not consent: You must petition the Family Court for an involuntary Termination of Parental Rights. Common grounds in kinship cases include abandonment (no contact for at least six months) and failure to provide financial support. A contested TPR adds six months to a year or more to the timeline.

The child is 14 or older: The child must provide their own written consent (Form 159) to the adoption, regardless of what the parents have agreed to.

One specific situation worth flagging: if a parent voluntarily placed the child with you and informally "gave" the child to you without a formal legal process, that informal arrangement does not eliminate the need for their legal consent or a TPR proceeding. The parent's agreement in the past does not substitute for the consent documents the court requires.

Financial Assistance for Kinship Adoption

Children adopted by relatives from DFS custody often qualify for Delaware Adoption Assistance, which can include:

• Monthly maintenance payments: Cannot exceed the child's foster care rate; negotiated before finalization. For 2025, basic rates max out at $397.37 to $511.37 per month depending on age.
• Medicaid: Continued health coverage for the child.
• Legal fee reimbursement: Up to $2,000 in non-recurring adoption expenses.
• Special needs designation: Children who are over age 5, part of a sibling group, or have identified medical or developmental conditions may qualify for enhanced assistance rates.

Kinship families who adopted without any DFS involvement (independent kinship) may still be able to access some state and federal post-adoption support resources through Delaware 211 or through agencies like A Better Chance For Our Children (ABCFOC), which provides post-adoption services statewide.

The Federal Adoption Tax Credit for 2025 is $17,280. For kinship families adopting a child with special needs designation, the full credit is available even if out-of-pocket costs were minimal.

Kinship Adoption vs. Guardianship: Understanding the Difference

Some kinship families pursue guardianship rather than adoption. This is a meaningful legal distinction:

• Guardianship gives you legal authority to make decisions for the child but does not permanently sever the birth parents' legal relationship with the child. The birth parents retain their parental rights. Guardianship can be terminated by the court.
• Adoption permanently and irrevocably replaces the birth parents' legal relationship with yours. Once finalized, it cannot be reversed except in extraordinarily rare circumstances.

Guardianship is sometimes appropriate when the birth parent's rights should not be permanently terminated — for example, when a parent has a serious illness and has voluntarily placed the child with a relative while they recover, with the expectation of eventually resuming parenting. Adoption is appropriate when the permanency goal is to give the child a stable, legally final home with family.

For some kinship families, guardianship with a long-term plan to adopt later (if circumstances change) is a reasonable middle path. But it should be a deliberate choice, not a default.

Where to Start

If you are already caring for a child as a kinship caregiver through DFS, your DFS worker is your primary contact for navigating the path toward adoption. If you are in an independent kinship situation without DFS involvement, a Delaware family attorney familiar with the Family Court kinship adoption process can help you assess whether the one-year residency requirement has been met, whether consent will be straightforward, and whether a home study waiver is likely to be granted.

The Delaware Adoption Process Guide covers the kinship adoption pathway alongside DFS foster care and private adoption, with a complete checklist of the court forms required and practical guidance on navigating consent and TPR in family situations.

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