To adopt a stepchild in Texas, you have to do three things in order: end the other biological parent’s legal rights, satisfy Texas’s eligibility and background-check rules, and file a petition that a judge grants at a final hearing. When the other parent cooperates by signing a relinquishment, most families finish in three to six months. When they fight it or cannot be found, the case takes considerably longer.
Who Can File
Texas Family Code Chapter 162 sets the eligibility rules.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 162 – Adoption You must be at least 18 and legally married to the child’s custodial parent at the time you file. An unmarried partner living with the parent does not qualify, no matter how long you have been together.
The child must have lived in your home for at least six months before the court will grant the adoption. Your spouse, the child’s biological or legal parent, joins the case as co-petitioner, and their parental rights stay intact the whole way through.
If the child is 12 or older, they have to consent in writing or in open court. A judge can waive that if the waiver serves the child’s best interest, but the exception is uncommon.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 162.010 – Consent Required
Ending the Other Parent’s Rights
Texas does not allow a child to have three legal parents. Before the adoption can go through, the noncustodial biological parent’s rights must be terminated. This is the hardest part of the case, and the path depends on whether that parent cooperates.
If They Will Sign
The cleanest route is an Affidavit of Voluntary Relinquishment of Parental Rights under Texas Family Code Section 161.103. The affidavit permanently surrenders the parent’s rights and responsibilities, and it can include a waiver of further notice so the parent does not have to be served again or appear at the adoption hearing.3Texas Law Help. Stepparent Adoption in Texas – Answers to Common Questions With a signed, unrevoked affidavit, the rest of the case moves quickly.
If They Refuse
You can ask the court to terminate rights involuntarily, but you must prove by clear and convincing evidence both that a statutory ground exists and that termination is in the child’s best interest. Grounds that come up most often in stepparent cases include:
- Abandonment: the parent voluntarily left the child without adequate support and stayed away.
- Failure to support the child, consistent with the parent’s ability to pay, for at least one year.
- Endangerment: the parent knowingly placed or allowed the child to remain in conditions that endanger physical or emotional well-being.
- Incarceration and inability to care for the child for at least two years.
Other grounds exist; these are simply the ones that surface most in stepparent cases.4Child Welfare Information Gateway. Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights – Texas Courts take involuntary termination seriously, and a parent who contests it, even halfheartedly, can stretch the case out for months. If you expect a fight, hiring a family law attorney is, as a practical matter, not optional.
If You Cannot Find Them
When the noncustodial parent has disappeared and genuinely cannot be located, Texas allows service by publication. A legal notice runs in a newspaper in the county of filing and also appears on a statewide public information website. Before approving this method, the court requires proof of a real effort to find the parent and appoints an attorney ad litem to conduct an independent search. Publication adds time and cost, and it carries a serious risk: the absent parent has two years after the adoption to petition for a new trial if they can show they never received actual notice.
Background Checks and the Home Study
Texas Family Code Section 107.153 calls for an adoption evaluation in every adoption case, but the judge can waive it in an uncontested stepparent adoption after reviewing investigative records from the Department of Family and Protective Services and criminal history records from the Department of Public Safety for the prospective adoptive parent.5State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 107 – Special Appointments, Child Custody Evaluations, and Adoption Evaluations A waiver removes the single biggest variable cost in the process.
Waiver or not, Texas requires a name-based criminal history check and a DFPS central registry check (the state’s child abuse and neglect database) for every prospective adoptive parent and every adult in the home.6Child Welfare Information Gateway. Background Checks for Prospective Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Caregivers – Texas If anyone in the household has lived outside Texas in the previous five years, a fingerprint-based FBI check and an out-of-state registry check are also required.
One point of confusion worth clearing up: the Health, Social, Educational, and Genetic History Report required under Section 162.005 does not apply here. The statute expressly exempts adoptions by a stepparent, grandparent, or aunt or uncle.7State of Texas. Texas Family Code 162.005 – Preparation of Health, Social, Educational, and Genetic History Report
Filing the Petition
The petition, formally the Original Petition for Adoption of a Child by a Stepparent, is filed electronically through eFileTexas with the district clerk. It needs full legal names, dates of birth, and addresses for you, your spouse, and the child, along with the length of time the child has lived in your home and details about the termination, whether already complete or requested in the same filing.
The base statewide filing fee for a new civil case is $350, made up of a $213 local consolidated fee and a $137 state consolidated fee.8Texas Judicial Branch. County-Level Court Civil Filing Fees Some counties add local surcharges, so expect $350 to $400 total. If you cannot afford it, a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs lets you ask for a waiver.
The Final Hearing
Once the petition is on file and the prerequisites are met (termination done, background checks cleared, evaluation complete or waived), you request a “prove-up” hearing date. At the hearing, the judge confirms that the other parent’s rights were properly terminated, reviews any evaluation results, and asks about your relationship with the child and your commitment to raising them. Your spouse typically testifies too.
Uncontested prove-ups are short. If the judge finds the adoption is in the child’s best interest, they sign the final Adoption Order at the bench. That signature is the moment you become the child’s legal parent.
New Birth Certificate and Sealed Records
After the order is signed, you complete a Certificate of Adoption (Form VS-160) and send it to the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit. The form asks whether you want a new birth certificate for the child; if you request one, it will list you as a parent and can reflect any name change.9Dallas County. Certificate of Adoption (VS-160) The fee for a new birth certificate based on adoption is $25, plus $22 for a certified copy.
The court seals the adoption records once the order is granted. Identifying information about the biological family cannot be released without a separate court order, and the new birth certificate shows no sign that an adoption occurred.10Texas Department of State Health Services. Requesting Sealed Adoption Records
What the Order Changes for Your Child
The Adoption Order reshapes the child’s legal identity in ways that matter long after the hearing.
Inheritance
Your child inherits from you the same way a biological child would, including under Texas intestacy law if you die without a will. The termination of the other biological parent’s rights does not automatically cut off the child’s inheritance from that parent. Under Texas Family Code Section 161.206, the child keeps the right to inherit from and through the biological parent unless the termination order says otherwise.11State of Texas. Texas Family Code 161.206 – Order Terminating Parental Rights
Social Security
An adopted child can qualify for Social Security benefits if you receive retirement or disability payments, or on your record if you die. The child must be unmarried and either under 18, a full-time student under 19, or disabled with a condition that began before age 22.12Social Security Administration. Can Children and Students Get Social Security Benefits? A stepchild’s eligibility without adoption is far more limited.
The Federal Adoption Tax Credit Does Not Apply
This one catches families off guard. The federal adoption credit, worth up to $17,670 per child for 2026, specifically excludes the adoption of a spouse’s child.13Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit You cannot claim it for a stepparent adoption.
FMLA Leave
If you qualify for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, you can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for the placement of a child for adoption, including time to attend hearings and meetings tied to finalizing the case. The right expires 12 months after finalization.14eCFR. 29 CFR 825.121 – Leave for Adoption or Foster Care
FAFSA
Once you adopt, you are a legal parent whose income and assets go on the FAFSA when your child applies for college aid. For most married stepparent households this is already the case, but adoption locks it in regardless of any future divorce. If your income is significantly higher than that of the biological parent whose rights were terminated, your child’s need-based aid eligibility may drop. Worth thinking about before the college years, not after.
What It Costs and How Long It Takes
Stepparent adoption is one of the least expensive adoptions, but the costs still add up. Rough budget:
- Court filing fee: $350 to $400 depending on the county.
- Adoption evaluation if the court orders one: $1,000 to $3,000. Judges frequently waive this in uncontested stepparent cases.
- Attorney fees: $1,000 to $7,000 for an uncontested case, more if termination is contested. Self-representation is legal, but the paperwork and procedural requirements trip up many people who try.
- New birth certificate: $47 ($25 filing plus $22 for one certified copy).
- Service by publication if needed: newspaper fees vary, often $200 or more per week.
Uncontested cases where the other parent signs a relinquishment usually finish in three to six months from filing. Contested terminations or publication service add months at minimum. The two things that control the calendar are how long termination takes and whether the judge orders a full evaluation.