43-102 Petition requirements; decree; adoptive home study, when required; jurisdiction; filings.
43-102. Petition requirements; decree; adoptive home study, when required; jurisdiction; filings.Except as otherwise provided in the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Act, any person or persons desiring to adopt a minor child or an adult child shall file a petition for adoption signed and sworn to by the person or persons desiring to adopt. The consent or consents required by sections 43-104 and 43-105 or section 43-104.07, the documents required by section 43-104.07 or the documents required by sections 43-104.08 to 43-104.25, and a completed preplacement adoptive home study if required by section 43-107 shall be filed prior to the hearing required in section 43-103.The county court of the county in which the person or persons desiring to adopt a child reside has jurisdiction of adoption proceedings, except that if a separate juvenile court already has jurisdiction over the child to be adopted under the Nebraska Juvenile Code, such separate juvenile court has concurrent jurisdiction with the county court in such adoption proceeding. If a child to be adopted is a ward of any court or a ward of the state at the time of placement and at the time of filing an adoption petition, the person or persons desiring to adopt shall not be required to be residents of Nebraska. The petition and all other court filings for an adoption proceeding shall be filed with the clerk of the county court. The party shall state in the petition whether such party requests that the proceeding be heard by the county court or, in cases in which a separate juvenile court already has jurisdiction over the child to be adopted under the Nebraska Juvenile Code, such separate juvenile court. Such proceeding is considered a county court proceeding even if heard by a separate juvenile court judge and an order of the separate juvenile court in such adoption proceeding has the force and effect of a county court order. The testimony in an adoption proceeding heard before a separate juvenile court judge shall be preserved as in any other separate juvenile court proceeding. The clerks of the district courts shall transfer all adoption petitions and other adoption filings which were filed with such clerks prior to August 28, 1999, to the clerk of the county court where the separate juvenile court which heard the proceeding is situated. The clerk of such county court shall file and docket such petitions and other filings.Except as set out in subdivisions (1)(b)(ii), (iii), (iv), and (v) of section 43-107, an adoption decree shall not be issued until at least six months after an adoptive home study has been completed by the Department of Health and Human Services or a licensed child placement agency. SourceLaws 1943, c. 104, § 2, p. 349; R.S.1943, § 43-102; Laws 1975, LB 224, § 1; Laws 1983, LB 146, § 1; Laws 1984, LB 510, § 2; Laws 1985, LB 255, § 18; Laws 1993, LB 16, § 1; Laws 1995, LB 712, § 19; Laws 1996, LB 1001, § 1; Laws 1998, LB 1041, § 6; Laws 1999, LB 375, § 2; Laws 1999, LB 594, § 9; Laws 2007, LB247, § 4; Laws 2007, LB296, § 62. Cross ReferencesNebraska Indian Child Welfare Act, see section 43-1501.Nebraska Juvenile Code, see section 43-2,129. AnnotationsFailure to sign and verify petition was not jurisdictional. Hiatt v. Menendez, 157 Neb. 914, 62 N.W.2d 123 (1954).County court in adoption proceeding determines question of permanent custody and control of minor. Krell v. Jenkins, 157 Neb. 554, 60 N.W.2d 613 (1953).Statutory procedure for adoption must be followed. In re Petition of Ritchie, 155 Neb. 824, 53 N.W.2d 753 (1952).