Crown Wardship

Consent to Adoption and Crown Wardship

When a parent or parents decide to relinquish their child for adoption, a “consents for adoption” must be signed. These consents cannot be given until the child is eight days old.

A child being placed for adoption who is seven years of age or older must also give written consent. Consent given by either the parent or child (if the child is seven years or older) may be withdrawn within 21 days after the consent is given.

When a child has been made a Crown Ward under the Child and Family Services Act, then a Children's Aid Society is required by law to make all reasonable efforts to secure an adoption placement, if adoption planning is in the child's best interests.

A Crown Wardship order is made by the courts on determination that in the child's best interests he or she can no longer live with his or her birth parents, and that a better and less restrictive option (such as placing the child with relatives) is not available. Under Crown Wardship, the province accepts all rights and responsibilities for the child.

A Crown Ward cannot be placed in an adoptive home until any outstanding access order made under child protection proceedings has been terminated by court order, the time permitted for appeal of the Crown Wardship order has fully expired and any appeal of that order has concluded with a decision that has left the order intact.

In cases of Crown Ward adoptions, written consent to the adoption is necessary from the Children's Aid Society and the child to be adopted, if that child is seven years of age or older.