A. The circuit court may approve a post-adoption contact and communication agreement authorized pursuant to § 16.1-283.1 or entered into pursuant to this article and filed with the court for a petition for adoption if:
1. The court determines that the child’s best interest would be served by approving the post-adoption contact and communication agreement;
2. The adoptive parent or parents and birth parent or parents have consented to a post-adoption contact and communication agreement filed with the court;
3. The agency authorized to place the child for adoption and to consent to an adoption or authorized to recommend the placement of a child for adoption and the child’s guardian ad litem have recommended that the post-adoption contact and communication agreement be approved as being in the best interest of the child, or, if there is no agency sponsoring the adoption, the agency that prepared the adoption report has been informed of the post-adoption contact and communication agreement and has recommended in the agency’s report to the circuit court that the post-adoption contact and communication agreement be approved; however, in cases in which no child placing agency or guardian ad litem for the child is involved, this requirement may be waived; and
4. Where the child is 14 years of age or older, consent to the post-adoption contact and communication agreement is obtained from the child.
B. To be enforceable, any agreement under this section shall be approved by the circuit court and incorporated into the final order of adoption.
C. The circuit court shall not require execution of a post-adoption contact and communication agreement as a condition for approving any adoption.
History
2010, c. 331.
