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Wis. Stat. § 48.81

Who may be adopted

Known as the The Children’s Code

The act spans §§ 48–48 (229 sections).

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case David J. Rosecky v. Monica M. Schissel (2013)

Most recently applied in A. M. B. v. Circuit Court for Ashland County (April 2024)

1987 a. 383; 1989 a. 161; 1997 a. 104; 2015 a. 380.

How often courts cite this section

1996200020102020202410
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Any child who is present in this state at the time the petition for adoption is filed may be adopted if any of the following criteria are met:

(1) Both of the child’s parents are deceased.

(2) The parental rights of both of the child’s parents with respect to the child have been terminated under subch. VIII or in another state or a foreign jurisdiction.

(3) The parental rights of one of the child’s parents with respect to the child have been terminated under subch. VIII or in another state or a foreign jurisdiction and the child’s other parent is deceased.

(4) The person filing the petition for adoption is the spouse of the child’s parent with whom the child and the child’s parent reside and either of the following applies:

(a) The child’s other parent is deceased.

(b) The parental rights of the child’s other parent with respect to the child have been terminated under subch. VIII or in another state or a foreign jurisdiction.

(5) Section 48.839 (3)

(b) applies.

(6) The child is being adopted under s. 48.97 (3).

Official source: Wisconsin State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Wisconsin statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.