1. (1) Reasonable adoption fees may be paid by the adoptive parent for the actual cost of services. The cost of services must relate to:

   1. (a) a petition for adoption;
   2. (b) placement of a child;
   3. (c) medical care or services, including cost-sharing amounts for medically necessary prenatal and postnatal outpatient mental health services;
   4. (d) prenatal care;
   5. (e) foster care;
   6. (f) a preplacement evaluation;
   7. (g) counseling related to providing information necessary to make an informed decision to voluntarily relinquish a child;
   8. (h) travel or temporary living costs for the birth mother;
   9. (i) legal fees incurred for services on behalf of the placing parent;
   10. (j) the reasonable costs incurred by a placing parent in a direct parental placement adoption to document the disclosures of medical and social history required by 42-3-101; and
   11. (k) other reasonable costs related to adoption that do not include education, vehicles, salary or wages, vacations, or permanent housing for the birth parent.
2. (2) A birth parent or a provider of a service listed in subsection (1) may receive or accept a payment authorized by subsection (1). The payment may not be made contingent on the placement of a child for adoption or upon relinquishment of and consent to adoption of the child. If the adoption is not completed, a person who is authorized by subsection (1) to make a specific payment is not liable for that payment unless the person has agreed in a signed writing with a birth parent or a provider of a service to make the payment regardless of the outcome of the proceeding for adoption.

History: En. Sec. 147, Ch. 480, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 9, Ch. 175, L. 2021.