California · Family Code

FAM §8801: (a) The selection of a prospective adoptive parent or parents shall be personally made by the child’s birth parent or parents and may not be delegated to an agent.

Civil

What this law says, in plain English

Birth parents must personally select adoptive parents based on personal knowledge of specified information about them, and cannot delegate this selection to an agent.

Read the full statutory text
(a) The selection of a prospective adoptive parent or parents shall be personally made by the child’s birth parent or parents and may not be delegated to an agent. The act of selection by the birth parent or parents shall be based upon personal knowledge of the prospective adoptive parent or parents. (b) “Personal knowledge” as used in this section includes, but is not limited to, substantially correct knowledge of all of the following regarding the prospective adoptive parents: their full legal names, ages, religion, race or ethnicity, length of current marriage and number of previous marriages, employment, whether other children or adults reside in their home, whether there are other children who do not reside in their home and the child support obligation for these children and any failure to meet these obligations, any health conditions curtailing their normal daily activities or reducing their normal life expectancies, any convictions for crimes other than minor traffic violations, any removals of children from their care due to child abuse or neglect, and their general area of residence or, upon request, their address.

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This page is legal information, not legal advice. Code text is sourced from official publications and may lag amendments — always confirm at the official source linked above. Plain-English summaries and relationship data are AI-derived and reviewed on an ongoing basis; verify with a licensed attorney before acting.