Natural Parent’s Small Monetary Gifts to Child Are Not ‘Provision of Support and Maintenance’ Under Adoption Law

The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today that when a biological parent of a child has failed, without justifiable cause, to make any court-ordered monthly child support payments for at least one year prior to the filing of another person’s petition to adopt that child, small monetary gifts made by the parent directly to the child during that year do not constitute payment of “support and maintenance as required by law or judicial decree,” and therefore, pursuant to state adoption laws, a probate court may approve the child’s adoption without the consent of the biological parent.

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