A. A petition for adoption shall be filed within sixty days of the adoptee's placement into the proposed adoptive home if the adoptee is under the age of one year. If the adoptee is over the age of one year at the time of placement, the petition shall be filed within one hundred twenty days of the placement. For good cause shown, the court may extend those time limits up to an additional one hundred eighty days if a request for extension is filed prior to the expiration of the initial time limits. No further extensions of time shall be granted after the one hundred eighty day extension period, unless an addendum to the pre-placement study is filed in addition to an affidavit establishing good cause for the delay in filing the adoption petition.
B. If a petition is not filed in a timely manner, any person having knowledge of the proceeding shall notify the department, which may proceed as if the adoptee were a neglected child.
History: 1978 Comp., § 32A-5-25, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 77, § 152; 1995, ch. 206, § 37.
ANNOTATIONSThe 1995 amendment, effective July 1, 1995, substituted "adoptee's" for "child's" and "adoptee" for "child" throughout the section.