Common Contracts
1 similar Post Adoption Contact Agreement (Paca) contracts
PACA DEFINEDPost Adoption Contact Agreement (Paca) • April 26th, 2017
Act 60, passed by the Vermont legislature in 2014, made major substantive changes to the Juvenile Proceedings Act. Included in the new provisions is a section that allows parents and intended adoptive parents to enter into enforceable post-adoption contact agreements (PACAs).1 Prior to enactment of this statute, any agreement for post-adoption contact were “good faith” agreements – they could not be enforced by a court. The legislative intent behind 33 V.S.A. §5124, at least in part, is an effort to decrease the number of involuntary TPRs by giving parents an incentive - future contact with their children - to voluntarily relinquish their parental rights. When the law initially went into effect, PACAs could only be considered in cases where children were in DCF custody. The statute was amended in 2016 by Act 170 to include cases where children are under conditional custody orders with relatives or other non-parents. In Vermont, 120 PACAs were signed between August 2015 and late Februar
