Kinship adoption is a court proceeding in which a relative becomes the legal parent of a child. Chapter 63 of the Florida Statutes allows grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, and other qualifying family members to adopt. The adoption terminates the biological parents’ rights, gives the adopting relative full parental rights, and produces a new birth certificate.

Florida law treats kinship adoptions differently from standard adoptions. The process does not ordinarily require a home study, allows termination of parental rights and finalization in a single hearing, and costs far less than private or agency adoption. Most kinship adoptions are completed within two to three months when the biological parents consent.

What a Kinship Adoption Does

A kinship adoption transfers all legal authority from the biological parents to the adopting relative. Once the judgment is entered, the relative can make medical, educational, and financial decisions for the child exactly as a biological parent could. The adopted child gains full inheritance rights from the adoptive parent and loses the right to inherit from a living biological parent whose rights the court terminated.

When a parent has died and a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, or sister adopts the child, the adoption does not affect the child’s right to inherit from or through that deceased parent. Grandparent visitation rights survive the adoption as well, unless the court orders otherwise. A stepparent adoption after a parent’s death carries the same inheritance protection.

The adoption is permanent. A biological parent has one year from the order terminating parental rights to ask a court to undo the adoption, and must show that the case substantially failed to meet Chapter 63’s requirements. After that year, Florida law bars any challenge to the adoption on any ground. A grandparent or aunt who has been raising a child informally has no guaranteed legal right to continue if the biological parent reasserts parental rights. Adoption eliminates that risk entirely.

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Who Can Adopt a Relative in Florida

Florida law defines a qualifying relative as someone related to the child by blood within the third degree of consanguinity. Qualifying relatives include grandparents, adult siblings, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, nieces, and nephews.

Great-aunts, great-uncles, and cousins fall within the fourth degree of consanguinity and do not qualify for the simplified kinship adoption process. A fourth-degree relative can still adopt, but the adoption must proceed under standard non-relative procedures, which require a home study, a waiting period, and additional paperwork.

The adopting relative can be single or married. A married relative normally petitions jointly with a spouse, though the court can excuse a spouse from joining for good cause or in the child’s best interest.

Requirements for Kinship Adoption

Florida imposes three requirements on a kinship adoption: where the child has lived, the adopting relative’s fitness, and consent.

Residency. There is no residency requirement for the adopting relative, and chapter 63 sets no minimum period the child must have lived in Florida. The UCCJEA affidavit filed with the petition tells the court where the child has lived over the past five years and with whom.

Fitness. The adopting relative must be financially and morally capable of caring for the child. A criminal record involving certain offenses, a history of abuse or neglect, or active substance abuse may disqualify a petitioner.

Consent. The biological parents generally must consent to the adoption through a written consent signed before two witnesses and acknowledged before a notary public. If a biological parent refuses to consent, the court may still permit the adoption if grounds exist to terminate that parent’s rights. If the child is 12 or older, the child must also consent, unless the court dispenses with that consent in the child’s best interest.

Advantages Over Standard Adoption

Florida law ordinarily exempts kinship adoptions from the home study and the waiting period that standard adoptions require, and it lets the court handle termination and adoption in one hearing.

No home study in most cases. Standard adoptions require a home study by a licensed child-placing agency or a licensed professional. Relatives within the third degree are exempt, and so are stepparents, though a judge can still order a home study for good cause. A family seeking a state adoption subsidy for a child in the child welfare system needs an approved home study either way.
No waiting period. Standard adoptions require a placement period before finalization. A kinship adoption can be heard as soon as the petition is filed, provided every required consent has been signed and filed with the court. If a consent is missing, the standard waiting periods apply.
Unified proceeding. Termination of the biological parents’ rights and finalization of the adoption can occur in a single hearing rather than two separate proceedings.
Lower cost. Because no home study is required and the process is shorter, a kinship adoption costs less than a standard or private adoption.

Consent and Termination of Parental Rights

The biological parents generally must consent to a kinship adoption in writing, signing before two witnesses and acknowledging the consent before a notary public. For a child older than six months, which covers nearly every kinship case, the consent takes effect on signing but the parent has three business days to revoke it.

If a biological parent refuses to consent, the court may still permit the adoption if grounds exist to terminate that parent’s rights involuntarily. The most common basis is abandonment—Florida law treats a parent as having abandoned a child when that parent provides little or no support and makes little or no effort to communicate while able to do so.

A parent who is served and then fails to answer or appear can lose parental rights, and so can a parent the court finds to be withholding consent unreasonably. Incarceration counts when it will cover a substantial part of the time before the child turns 18. Incapacity applies only when a court has declared the parent incapacitated and found that restoring competency is medically improbable. Abuse and neglect are grounds in a dependency case brought by the state, not in a private relative adoption.

Proving abandonment or unfitness without the parent’s consent is difficult. Florida law protects a parent’s right to raise their own child, and the petitioner carries the burden of proof. The statutory ground must be established by clear and convincing evidence, and the judge must enter written findings of fact. A contested termination extends the timeline by several months and often requires additional hearings, witness testimony, and legal argument. If a biological parent has died, the petitioner attaches a certified copy of the death certificate to the petition in place of that parent’s consent.

Steps in the Process

A Florida kinship adoption follows a sequence of filings and one court hearing.

File the petition. The relative files a petition for adoption in the circuit court of the county where the child resides or where the attorney is located. The petition identifies the child, the adopting relative, the biological parents, and the grounds for adoption.
Obtain consent or pursue termination. If the biological parents consent, their signed forms are filed with the petition. If a consent cannot be obtained, the attorney evaluates whether grounds exist to proceed without it, then files for involuntary termination of parental rights.
File required documents. The petition must include the child’s birth certificate, copies of any prior custody or support orders, and an affidavit under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act setting out where the child has lived. A separate affidavit addresses the Indian Child Welfare Act and whether the child has Native American tribal membership or eligibility. It must also certify that the petitioner will notify any grandparent the child lived with for six of the past twenty-four months. If the child is older than 12, the filing includes documentation of an interview.
Attend the final hearing. The court schedules a hearing before a judge. If all requirements are met and the judge finds the adoption serves the child’s best interest, the judge enters a final judgment of adoption. Most hearings last five to ten minutes.
Obtain an amended birth certificate. After the final judgment, the attorney submits paperwork to the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics. The new birth certificate lists the adopting relative as the parent.

Grandparent Adoption

Grandparent adoption is the most common form of kinship adoption in Florida. Many grandparents raise grandchildren for years in an informal arrangement and want to formalize the relationship through adoption.

A grandparent adoption gives the grandparent permanent custody, subject only to the one-year window in which a biological parent can move to set the judgment aside. Florida law sets no upper age limit on a grandparent who wants to adopt. Before entering the judgment the court must find that the adoption serves the child’s best interest and that the time to appeal the termination of parental rights has run without an appeal.

Adopting a Niece, Nephew, or Sibling

Aunts, uncles, and adult siblings are all within the third degree of consanguinity and qualify for the same simplified procedures as grandparents. A relative in that group who cares for a child informally carries the same exposure a grandparent does, and adoption resolves it the same way.

The process for adopting a niece, nephew, or sibling is identical to a grandparent adoption, down to the cost and the timeline. A sibling must be at least 18 years old to petition as the adopting relative.

Kinship Adoption vs. Temporary Custody and Guardianship

A kinship adoption creates a permanent parent-child relationship, while the alternatives leave the biological parents’ rights intact. Florida has a statute written for extended family members raising a child: a temporary custody order lets the relative consent to medical and dental care, obtain the child’s school and medical records, and enroll the child in school. That order stays revocable and the parents keep their rights. A guardianship works much the same way and adds ongoing court supervision.

	Kinship Adoption	Temporary custody or guardianship
Duration	Permanent	Temporary or revocable
Parental rights	Full parental rights	Limited authority
Biological parents’ rights	Terminated	Not terminated
Inheritance	Child inherits from adoptive parent	No inheritance rights created
Court involvement	One-time proceeding	Ongoing court supervision

Cost and Timeline

A kinship adoption in Florida typically costs between $3,500 and $4,500 as a flat attorney fee. That fee generally covers the petition, all required documents, the final hearing, and the amended birth certificate.

The adopting relative may qualify for the federal adoption tax credit, which for 2026 allows a maximum credit of $17,670 per eligible child. The credit applies against income tax owed and covers out-of-pocket adoption expenses such as attorney fees, court costs, and filing fees. Up to $5,120 of the 2026 credit is refundable, so a grandparent who owes little or no income tax can still receive that much in cash. Any unused nonrefundable balance carries forward for up to five years.

The full credit is available to families with modified adjusted gross income of $265,080 or less, and it is fully phased out at $305,080. Stepparent adoptions do not qualify for the adoption tax credit, but kinship adoptions do. The credit does not reach a typical adult adoption, because it applies only to a child under 18 or a person who is physically or mentally incapable of self-care.

If the biological parents consent, the process takes approximately two to three months. Most of that time is spent waiting for a hearing date with the assigned judge. Contested adoptions take longer because of the additional proceedings required to terminate parental rights involuntarily.

Kinship Adoption Without an Attorney

The Florida Supreme Court publishes free approved forms for stepparent adoptions, but there is no approved form set for a kinship adoption. A kinship case has its own petition requirements and its own consent rules, and it may include an involuntary termination proceeding that standardized forms do not address. A consent executed without the two required witnesses is defective, and a petition that omits the grandparent notice certification is incomplete.

Adult Kinship Adoption

If the person being adopted is 18 or older, the adoption proceeds as an adult adoption. The biological parents cannot block it, and the case requires no home study and no Florida residency period. The adult being adopted signs a written consent, a spouse on either side consents as well unless the court excuses it, and the biological parents still receive written notice of the final hearing. Florida’s adoption statutes set no deadline, so a relative who did not adopt while the child was a minor can file years later.

Grandparent and Kinship Adoption in Florida