How Does Adoption Affect Child Support Obligations?
To reiterate, adoption is a legal process so the adoptive parents of a child are just as obligated to provide financial support to adoptive children, even if the parents were never married. Step parents are not legally obligated to support the minor children of their new spouses even though they often do. However, should they divorce, the stepparent will not have to pay child support since they have no legal ties to their ex’s children.
However, that changes if the stepparent adopts the child during the marriage. Then the children are legally tie to them and if a divorce occurs, their biological parent may ask for child support. However, the adoptive parent is not always noncustodial; they may take custody and ask for support from the biological parent.
When the Custodial Adoptive Parent Remarries
The biological parent may still have to pay child support if the adoptive parent remarries because their new spouse does not legally owe any financial support to the children unless they, too, adopt the children. However, remarrying makes it possible for a recalculation and, perhaps, a modification to the current child support payment schedule.