CHAPTER 429

An Act to amend and reenact 8§ 68-849, 68-852, 68-858, 68-854, 68-855,
63-356, as amended, and § 68-860 of the Code of Virginia, relating to
preliminary investigation in adoption proceedings, visitations during
probationary periods, omission of probationary period in certain
instances, final order of adoption and disposition of reports made in
such cases.
[H 278]

Approved March 31, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 63-349, 63-352, 63-358, 63-354, 68-355, 68-356, as amended,
and § 63-360 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as follows:
_ § 63-349. Upon the filing of the petition, the court wherein the peti-
tion is filed, or the clerk thereof upon order of the court, shall forthwith
forward a copy of the petition to the Commissioner or, when the child was
placed with the petitioners by a child placing agency the court may in its
discretion forward a copy of the petition to the agency which placed the
child, who or which shall cause to be made a thorough investigation of
the matter and report thereon in writing to the court within ninety days
after the copy of the petition is forwarded. * Whenever the Commissioner
requests that such an investigation be conducted by a local superintendent
or other welfare agency of a county or city or the child placing agency
which placed the child, it shall be the duty of such person or agency to
make the necessary investigation, and to report thereon promptly to the
Commissioner. The investigation requested by the court shall include, in
addition to any other inquiries which the court may require the Commis-
Sloner or child placing agency to make, inquiries as to (1) whether the
petitioner is financially able, morally suitable, and a proper person to care
for and to train the child, (2) what the physical and mental condition of
the child is, (3) why the parents, if living, desire to be relieved of the
responsibility for the custody, care and maintenance of the child, and what
their attitude is toward the proposed adoption, (4) whether the parents
have abandoned the child or are morally unfit to have custody over him,
(5) the circumstances under which the child came to live, and is living, in
the home of the petitioner, and (6) whether the child is a suitable child
for adoption by the petitioner. * Any report made to the court shall *
include * a recommendation as to the action to be taken by the court on
the petition.

§ 63-352. If, after considering the report * provided for by § 63-849
the court is satisfied that all of the requirements of this chapter have been
complied with, that the petitioner is financially able to maintain adequately
and is morally suitable and a proper person to care for and train the
child, that the child is suitable for adoption by the petitioner, and that the
best interests of the child will be promoted by the adoption, it shall enter
an interlocutory order of adoption declaring that henceforth, subject to the
probationary period hereinafter provided for and to the provisions of the
final order of adoption, the child will be, to all intents and purposes, the
child of the petitioner, and, if the petition includes a prayer for a change
of the child’s name and the court is satisfied that such change is for the
best interests of the child, that, upon entry of final order, the name of the
child shall be changed. An attested copy of every interlocutory order of
adoption shall be forwarded forthwith by the clerk of the court in which
it was entered to the Commissioner. In the event an interlocutory order
is entered in a case in which the child was placed by a child placing agency
and the report required in § 63-849 was made to the court by the agency,
the Commissioner shall notify the agency of the entry of the interlocutory
order and the agency shall send to the Commissioner copies of all reports
made by the agency under the provisions of § 638-849.

If the court denies the petition for adoption and if it appears to the
court that the child is without proper care, custody or guardianship, the
court may, in its discretion, appoint a guardian for the child or commit the
child to a custodial agency as provided for in §§ 81-5 and 16.1-178, respec-
tively, of the Code.

__ § 68-353. The court may, by order entered of record, revoke its
interlocutory order of adoption at any time prior to the entry of the final
order, for good cause shown, on its own motion, or on the motion of the
natural parents of the child, or of the petitioner, or of the child himself by
his next friend, or of * the child placing agency, which placed the child
with the petitioners or of the Commissioner; but no such order of revoca-
tion shall be entered, except on motion of the petitioner, unless the peti-
tioner is given ten days’ notice of such motion in writing and an oppor-
tunity to be heard or has removed from the State. The clerk of the court
shall forward an attested copy of every such order to the Commissioner,
and to the child placing agency which placed the child.

When an interlocutory order has been entered and subsequently is
revoked, the court may proceed in the same manner as set forth in § 68-352
i ore an order concerning the subsequent custody or guardianship of

e child.

§ 63-354. After the entry of an interlocutory order of adoption, the
Commissioner shall cause the child to be visited in the home of the peti-
tioner, at least three times within a period of six months * such visits
whenever practicable, to be made within the six months period immedi-
ately following the date of entry of the interlocutory order, by an agent
of the Department or of a local board or department of public welfare, or
by an agent of a child placing agency, or, if the petitioner has moved out-
side the State, by a representative of a public welfare agency, or of any
agency approved by the public welfare authorities, of the state, territory
or county into which the petitioner has moved, provided, however, that
there be not less than ninety days between the first visit and the last visit.
Whenever the Commissioner requests that such visitations be made by a
local superintendent, or other welfare agency of a county or city, it shall
be the duty of such person or agency to make the necessary visits and to
report thereon promptly the results of each such visit to the Commis-
sioner. The Commissioner shall make to the court a written report of his
findings made pursuant to such visitations, within * thirty days after *
receipt by the Commissioner of the report covering the last visit made in
compliance with this section and shall furnish a copy of such report to
counsel of record for the parties if requested in any pleading filed in the
proceedings, setting out the name and address of such counsel, and which
copy shall be returned by such counsel as is required by § 63-360 for the
return of the original report.

§ 63-355. If the child is legally the child by birth or adoption of one
of the petitioners, or if the child has been placed in the home of the peti-
tioner by a child placing agency and such agency certifies to the court that
the child has lived in the home of the petitioner continuously for a period
of at least six months next preceding the filing of the petition, and has
been visited by a representative of such agency at least three times within
such six months period provided there be not less than ninety days
between the first visit and the last visit, or if the child has resided in the
home of the petitioner continuously for as much as five years immediately
prior to the filing of the petition for adoption, and is at least * twelve
years of age at the time thereof, and if the court is of the opinion that
the entry of an interlocutory order would otherwise be proper, the court,
after receipt of the * report, as provided for in § 63-349, may omit the
probationary period provided for in the preceding section (§ 63-354) and
the interlocutory order, and enter a final order of adoption, and the court
may, for good cause shown, in cases of placement by a child placing
agency, omit the requirement of this section that the visitations be made
in the six months immediately preceding the filing of the petition, pro-
vided, however, that such visits be made in some six-month period preced-
ing such filing.

§ 63-356. After the expiration of six months from the date upon
which the interlocutory order is entered, and after considering the report
of the Commissioner made pursuant to § 63-354, if the court is satisfied
that the best interests of the child will be served thereby, the court shall
enter the final order of adoption. An attested copy of every final order of
adoption including those in which the initial referral by the court was
made to the agency placing the child shall be forwarded, by the clerk of
the court in which it was entered, to the Commissioner and to the child
placing agency which placed the child.

§ 63-360. Upon the entry of a final order of adoption, or other final
disposition of the matter, the clerk of the court in which it was entered
shall forthwith * transmit to the Commissioner all reports made * in con-
mection with the case, and the Commissioner shall preserve such reports
in a separate file which shall not be open to inspection, or be copied, by
any one other than the adopted child, if twenty-one years of age, and the
adoptive parents, except upon the order of a court of record entered upon
good cause shown.