Colorado Adoption Laws: Eligibility, Home Study, and Costs

Colorado adoption laws let any person age 21 or older petition a court to adopt a child, with the process governed by Title 19, Article 5 of the Colorado Revised Statutes.¹ A judge will grant the adoption once the child is legally available, a home study and background checks are complete, and the court is satisfied the placement serves the child’s best interests. What the path looks like in practice depends on whether you are adopting a stepchild, a relative, a foster child, or a newborn through a private agency.

Who Qualifies to Adopt

The baseline is age 21. A court can accept a petition from someone younger when the circumstances clearly benefit the child, but that is the exception.¹ There is no homeownership requirement, no minimum income threshold, and no religious test. Single petitioners are eligible. Foster parents are expressly named in the statute as eligible petitioners.

If you are married or in a civil union and not legally separated, your spouse or partner has to join the petition with you. The one carve-out is the stepparent situation: when your spouse is already the child’s legal parent, you file alone to adopt their child.¹

Which Type of Adoption Applies to You

Colorado recognizes several adoption pathways, and the fees, waiting periods, and consent rules differ meaningfully between them. Identifying your path first will tell you what the rest of the process looks like.

Foster care adoption. Children in county custody become available after the court has terminated the biological parents’ rights. The state provides financial assistance and Medicaid coverage for many of these children, which makes this the least expensive route.²
Stepparent adoption. A spouse adopts their partner’s child. The custodial birth parent consents, and the other biological parent’s rights must be terminated voluntarily or by court order. Courts can schedule the hearing without the standard 182-day post-placement wait.
Kinship adoption. A relative who already has physical custody can petition after the child has lived with them for at least one year, provided the birth parents have abandoned the child or failed to provide support during that period.³
Private adoption. Birth parents and adoptive parents connect through a licensed child placement agency or an attorney. Birth parents go through statutory relinquishment procedures, including counseling, before the placement becomes permanent.
International adoption. Families who adopted abroad often complete a re-adoption in a Colorado court to secure a state birth certificate. If the child entered the U.S. on a guardianship visa rather than a full adoption visa, a new Colorado proceeding is required to establish parental rights.

Making the Child Legally Available

No adoption can go forward until the child is legally available, which means either a court order has terminated parental rights or the proper parties have signed written consents. Whose signature you need depends on your path. In a stepparent case, the custodial parent signs a verified consent and the other biological parent either relinquishes or has rights terminated based on abandonment or non-support for at least one year.³ In a second-parent case, the sole legal parent consents in writing to a specified second adult adopting the child. In foster care, parental rights were already terminated in the dependency and neglect case, so no birth parent consent is needed at adoption. In a private adoption, both birth parents relinquish under C.R.S. § 19-5-103 or the expedited process in § 19-5-103.5.

Birth Parent Waiting Periods

A birth parent cannot sign away rights the day the baby is born. Under the expedited relinquishment procedure for children under one year old, the petition cannot be filed until at least four days after the birth.⁴ The standard relinquishment under § 19-5-103 adds court hearings and counseling that push the timeline out further.

Required Counseling

Before relinquishment, a birth parent must receive counseling from the county department or a licensed agency covering the permanence of the decision, its emotional impact, and the alternatives available. If counseling is not complete, the court must continue the case until it is.⁵

Revoking Consent

Once a relinquishment is signed and accepted, undoing it is hard. A birth parent challenging it must show fraud or duress and must act within 91 days of the child’s placement. If the court finds the consent was valid, the adoption continues regardless of a change of heart.

Unmarried Fathers

Colorado does not use a putative father registry. The court inquires into whether any man might be the father, including whether the mother was married at conception, whether anyone provided support, and whether anyone has acknowledged possible paternity. An identified potential father receives notice and has 35 days to file a claim of paternity. If no father can be identified, notice goes out by publication.

Home Study and Background Checks

Every adoption petition in Colorado must include a written home study prepared by the county department, a licensed child placement agency, or a designated qualified individual.⁵ The evaluator looks at your physical and mental health, emotional stability, and moral integrity; your ability to promote the child’s welfare; the child’s own condition and family background; whether this particular match works for this particular child, including the child’s own feelings if they are old enough to express them; and how long the child has already been living with you. A medical examination from a physician or nurse practitioner, current within one year, is typically part of the file. A home study for a private adoption generally runs between $900 and $4,000.

Fingerprint-based criminal history checks through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are mandatory for every prospective adoptive parent and every adult in the household. The CBI charges $39.50 for the combined state and federal search.⁶ The court also checks child abuse and neglect registries.

Certain convictions are absolute bars. You cannot adopt with a conviction for child abuse, a crime of violence, or a felony sex offense. A felony conviction for physical assault, battery, or a drug-related offense within the past five years disqualifies you, as does a domestic violence felony within the past ten years.⁵ For other felonies listed in the statute, adoption remains possible if you have had no subsequent arrests or convictions, no pattern of misdemeanors, and the court finds the adoption is in the child’s best interests.

Filing the Petition and Reaching Finalization

You file in the county where you live or where the child is located. The standard filing fee is $197.⁷ Second-parent adoptions carry a lower fee of $167.⁸ If you are adopting multiple children, each child generally requires a separate petition and fee, though exceptions exist when the children share the same circumstances. Standardized petition forms are on the Colorado Judicial Branch website.⁹

How soon the court will hold the final hearing depends on the type of case. For stepparent, custodial, and kinship adoptions, the court schedules the hearing as soon as possible. For every other adoption, the hearing cannot take place until the child has lived in the prospective adoptive parent’s home for at least 182 days, unless the court shortens or extends that window for good cause.¹⁰ That roughly six-month window gives the supervising agency time to observe the placement.

At the hearing, the judge reviews the home study, background check results, and the full petition. The court has to be satisfied that the child is available for adoption, that you have good character and the ability to support and educate the child, that the home is suitable, and that the adoption serves the child’s best interests.¹⁰ For sibling groups, the judge also considers whether keeping the siblings together serves their best interests. If the record supports it, the judge signs the Decree of Adoption, which permanently establishes the new parent-child relationship and ends any legal ties to the biological parents. The court then sends an application to the state registrar for a new birth certificate in the adoptive parents’ names.

What It Costs

Costs span an enormous range. Foster care is the least expensive route: the state waives most fees and provides adoption assistance that can include a monthly subsidy (capped at the foster care rate), Medicaid coverage for the child until age 21, and reimbursement of up to $2,000 per child for non-recurring expenses like court costs and attorney fees.² Stepparent or kinship adoptions typically run the $197 filing fee plus any attorney charges, and many families complete them using the self-help forms with limited legal help. Private domestic adoptions through an agency generally fall between $20,000 and $60,000, covering the home study, birth parent counseling, matching, and legal work. International adoptions vary widely by country and commonly run $25,000 to $50,000 or more once you include agency fees, immigration, travel, translation, and the Colorado re-adoption. The $39.50 CBI fingerprint fee applies across all adoption types.⁶

Federal Adoption Tax Credit

The federal adoption tax credit covers qualified expenses including court costs, attorney fees, travel, and other costs directly related to the adoption. For the 2025 tax year, the maximum credit is $17,280 per eligible child, with a phase-out beginning at $259,190 of modified adjusted gross income and ending at $299,190.¹¹ Families adopting a child with special needs from foster care can claim the full credit regardless of actual expenses. The credit is nonrefundable, but unused amounts can carry forward for up to five years.

Open Adoption Agreements

Colorado allows post-adoption contact agreements, but only the adoptive parent can request one. The agreement can provide for visits, family time, or information exchange between the child and birth parents, birth relatives, or an Indian tribe if the child is a tribal member, and it can spell out when the adoptive parent may decline or end contact.¹² If the child is 12 or older, the court cannot order a contact agreement unless the child consents to every term. Once the agreement is written into the decree, it carries the weight of a court order rather than a private promise.

When Other Laws Override the Standard Process

Two situations change the rules in ways you need to flag at the start of your case.

If the child was born in another state or the adoptive family lives in another state, the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children applies. Moving a child across state lines for an adoption placement without ICPC approval is illegal, and the child cannot be placed with the adoptive family until both the sending and receiving states have signed off. The process typically adds several weeks to the timeline.¹³

If the child is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized Indian tribe, the federal Indian Child Welfare Act applies and overrides parts of state procedure. For voluntary placements, the birth parent’s consent must be signed before a judge who certifies that the terms and consequences were explained and understood, with interpretation if the parent does not speak English fluently. Consent given before or within ten days of the child’s birth is automatically invalid. ICWA also gives birth parents broader withdrawal rights than Colorado state law: a parent can withdraw consent for any reason at any time before the final decree, and the child must be returned. Even after a final decree, a parent can petition to vacate on fraud or duress grounds, generally within two years.¹⁴ Federal law also sets a placement preference order favoring extended family, then other tribal members, then other Indian families, which a tribe can modify by resolution. Failing to comply with ICWA can result in an adoption being overturned after finalization, so address it early if there is any possibility it applies.

1
Justia. Colorado Code 19-5-202 – Who May Adopt
2
Colorado Department of Human Services. Adoption
3
Justia. Colorado Code 19-5-203 – Availability for Adoption
4
Justia. Colorado Code 19-5-103.5 – Expedited Relinquishment Procedure
5
Justia. Colorado Code 19-5-207 – Written Consent and Home Study Report
6
Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Employment and Background Checks
7
Colorado Judicial Branch. List of Fees
8
Colorado Judicial Branch. Instructions for Second Parent Adoption
9
Colorado Judicial Branch. Legal Custody Adoption
10
Justia. Colorado Code 19-5-210 – Hearing on Petition
11
Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit
12
Justia. Colorado Code 19-5-208 – Petition for Adoption
13
Colorado Department of Human Services. Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 25 USC 1913 – Parental Rights Voluntary Termination