## Facts

- Anthony, age 12, had lived with Dennis and Dorothy P. since about 18 months old, continuously for roughly 10½ years.
- Anthony’s three older siblings had been placed with and adopted by a different foster/adoptive family; that family did not take Anthony when he became available for permanent placement.
- Anthony maintained ongoing contact with his siblings, and Dennis and Dorothy encouraged sibling visits.
- Anthony’s biological father was deceased; his biological mother was unable to care for him.
- An authorized placement agency supported the adoption petition.
- The court considered whether the adoption decree should expressly require continued contact and visitation between Anthony and his siblings after finalization.

## Issues

1. Whether, in an agency adoption, the Family Court may include in an adoption decree a requirement that adoptive parents permit continued visitation or contact between the adopted child and the child’s biological siblings.
2. Whether imposing such a post-adoption sibling-contact requirement is consistent with New York adoption law’s general severance of prior legal family ties and with the child’s best interests.

## Decision

- The court granted Dennis and Dorothy P.’s petition to adopt Anthony as in the child’s best interests.
- The court included in the adoption decree an express provision requiring continued contact and visitation between Anthony and his biological siblings.
- The court concluded that this condition did not diminish the adoptive parents’ legal status or revive any parental rights in the biological family.

## Legal Principles

- The best interests of the child is the controlling standard in adoption proceedings, and the court acts in a parens patriae role to protect the child’s welfare.
- In appropriate cases, the court may shape the adoption order with conditions or directions that serve the child’s welfare, including preserving significant sibling relationships.
- Sibling bonds may constitute a distinct component of a child’s emotional and psychological well-being and may warrant judicial protection at the time of adoption.
- The statutory effect of adoption in terminating prior parental rights does not necessarily bar limited, structured post-adoption contact with biological relatives when adoptive parents retain exclusive legal parenthood.

## Conclusion

The Family Court finalized an agency adoption and, based on the child’s best interests and the importance of established sibling bonds, ordered that post-adoption sibling contact continue, treating such a provision as compatible with the legal finality of adoption and the adoptive parents’ exclusive parental rights.


In re Adoption of Anthony, 113 Misc. 2d 26, 448 N.Y.S.2d 377 (Fam. Ct. Bronx Cnty. 1982)