How to Voluntarily Terminate Parental Rights in Wisconsin

To voluntarily terminate parental rights in Wisconsin, you file a petition in the circuit court for the county where your child lives, give consent on the record to a judge (or through one of a few approved alternatives), and let the court decide, after hearing from a guardian ad litem, whether severing the relationship is in your child’s best interests. The process runs under Chapter 48 of the Wisconsin Statutes, and the order a judge signs at the end is permanent: it ends custody, visitation, child support, decision-making authority, and inheritance rights between you and your child.¹ Judges do not approve these petitions automatically. A court must be independently satisfied that your consent is informed and voluntary and that termination serves the child before it signs anything.

How You Give Consent

Wisconsin Statutes Section 48.41 sets out the ways a parent can consent. The default is in-person appearance at a hearing, where the judge explains what termination permanently does, questions you directly, and accepts the consent only after being satisfied it is informed and voluntary.²

If appearing in the Wisconsin courtroom is not realistic, the court has alternatives. You can give written consent before an embassy or consular official, a military judge, or a judge of any court of record in another county, state, or foreign jurisdiction. That official has to question you and confirm the consent is informed and voluntary before accepting it. The court can also take your testimony by telephone or live audiovisual link.²

There is one further option, but it is narrow. A birth parent can consent by affidavit witnessed by two people, stating that they understand the effect of a termination order and voluntarily disclaim all rights to the child, including the right to notice of future proceedings. This method is available only when the termination is tied to a stepparent adoption or when the birth parent lives in a foreign jurisdiction.² In every other situation, you have to appear and answer the judge’s questions.

Parents under 18 get an extra layer of protection. The guardian ad litem assigned to a minor parent has to personally interview them, investigate the reason for the termination, assess whether the consent is truly voluntary, and inform the minor of their rights and the alternatives.³

Filing the Petition

The case starts with a petition in the circuit court of the county where the child lives. Under Section 48.42, it can be filed by the child’s parent, an authorized agency, or another person permitted to file under Section 48.25. The petition must include the child’s name, date of birth, and address; the names and addresses of both parents, any guardian, and any legal custodian; and a statement that consent will be given under Section 48.41. If the child may be covered by the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, the petition must also identify the child’s tribe and Indian custodian, if known.⁴

Wisconsin publishes standardized forms. The main one is the Petition for Termination of Parental Rights, Form JC-1630.⁵ Your formal consent goes on a separate form: JC-1637 if you consent in front of a judge, JC-1636 if you consent by affidavit. Both are available on the Wisconsin Court System website or from the local Clerk of Circuit Court.⁶

What Happens in Court

Wisconsin runs every termination case, voluntary or not, through two phases: a grounds phase and a disposition phase. The split keeps the question of whether grounds exist separate from the question of whether terminating actually serves the child.

The Initial Hearing

The court has to hold an initial hearing within 30 days of the petition being filed.⁷ At that hearing, the court finds out whether anyone contests the petition. In an uncontested voluntary case, the judge takes testimony on the petition’s allegations, questions you about your consent (or lets the attorneys do it), and confirms the consent is informed and voluntary.

If someone contests the petition, the court schedules a fact-finding hearing within 45 days, and any party whose rights could be affected can request a jury trial at the initial hearing.⁷ Those are rare in a straightforward voluntary case, but the right exists.

The Disposition Hearing

Once the court finds grounds, it moves to disposition. Here the judge applies the best-interests standard from Section 48.426 and decides whether to grant the termination, dismiss the petition, or choose something else. Disposition can happen immediately after the grounds phase, or the court can delay it by up to 45 days if the parties agree or if an agency needs to prepare a report on the child’s history.⁸

The Guardian Ad Litem

The court must appoint a guardian ad litem for the child in every termination proceeding.³ The GAL is an independent advocate for the child’s best interests, not a formality. They investigate, meet with the child, and make specific recommendations at every stage.

The GAL is not bound by what the parent, child, or any agency wants. If what the child wants conflicts with the GAL’s view of the child’s best interests, the GAL has to tell the court, and the court can appoint separate counsel to voice the child’s stated wishes.³ GAL fees vary by county and are usually billed at an hourly rate the court sets. Plan for it as a real cost.

Why a Judge Can Still Say No

Consent alone does not get the order signed. The judge weighs at least six statutory best-interests factors, and the list is not exhaustive:⁸

Whether the child is likely to be adopted after termination.
The child’s age and physical health at disposition and, if applicable, at the time of removal from the home.
Whether the child has substantial relationships with the parent or other family members, and whether cutting those ties would harm the child.
What the child wants, if old enough to say.
How long the parent and child have been apart.
Whether termination will give the child a more stable and permanent family, considering current placement and the results of prior placements.

If the factors cut against termination, the judge can deny the petition even when you want to go through with it. Your willingness to end the relationship does not, by itself, make ending it the right call for your child. The GAL’s recommendation often weighs heavily here.

What the Final Order Does

Once granted, the termination permanently severs every legal right and duty between you and your child. It also severs the legal relationship between the child and anyone whose connection runs through you, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on your side.¹ You lose custody, visitation, and decision-making authority. Your child support obligation ends. Inheritance rights between you and your child are extinguished.

Two exceptions survive the order. The child’s relationship with siblings is not severed by the termination itself; that continues until a later adoption order ends it. And relatives whose connection to the child runs through you are still treated as relatives for placement and permanency planning until an adoption order changes their status.¹ In practice, a grandparent on your side can still be considered as a potential placement after your rights end.

The order itself has to name who takes guardianship or custody of the child and which agency is responsible for securing an adoption or a permanent family placement.¹ In a stepparent-adoption case, the next step is usually the stepparent’s adoption petition. If no adoptive family is lined up, custody typically goes to the county department of social services or the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, which then handles permanency planning.

Can You Change Your Mind?

Before the court enters the final order, you can withdraw your consent. After the judge questions you on the record, accepts your consent, and signs the final termination order, the decision is effectively permanent. Wisconsin does not give you a statutory waiting period or a cooling-off window after the order is signed.

The only realistic challenge after a final order is an appeal arguing that your consent was not actually voluntary or that the court made a procedural error. Wisconsin has an expedited appellate process for termination cases, but reversing a termination you voluntarily consented to is exceptionally difficult. A narrow federal rule gives parents of an Indian child the ability to withdraw consent for any reason at any time before a final decree, and to challenge a final adoption decree on fraud or duress grounds for a limited period.⁹ That rule applies only in cases covered by the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Do You Need a Lawyer?

In an involuntary or contested termination, any parent who appears must be represented by counsel. A parent 18 or older can waive that right; a parent under 18 cannot. If you are entitled to representation and cannot afford a lawyer, the court must refer you for an indigency determination.¹⁰

In an uncontested voluntary case, that mandatory-counsel rule does not apply the same way. Even then, talking to a lawyer before you sign any consent form is worth doing. Termination permanently eliminates every legal tie to your child, and an attorney can walk you through exactly what you are giving up before you ever stand in front of the judge.

Costs

Filing the petition requires a circuit court filing fee set by statute. Attorney fees, if you hire one, are separate and depend on the case’s complexity and whether anyone contests it. The guardian ad litem’s fees are an additional cost, usually at an hourly rate the court sets. An uncontested voluntary case is generally manageable in cost; a contested case or one that requires multiple hearings gets expensive quickly. Call the Clerk of Circuit Court in the county where you plan to file for current fee amounts.

1
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.43 – Court Orders; Contents and Effect; Review
2
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.41 – Voluntary Consent to Termination of Parental Rights
3
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.235 – Guardian Ad Litem
4
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.42 – Petition
5
Wisconsin Court System. Petition for Termination of Parental Rights – Form JC-1630
6
Wisconsin Court System. Circuit Court Forms – Termination of Parental Rights
7
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.422 – Hearing on the Petition
8
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.426 – Standard and Factors
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 25 USC 1913 – Parental Rights; Voluntary Termination
10
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 48.23 – Right to Counsel