43-102. Petition requirements; decree; adoptive home study, when required; jurisdiction; filings.

Except as otherwise provided in the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Act, any person or persons desiring to adopt a minor child or an adult child shall file a petition for adoption signed and sworn to by the person or persons desiring to adopt. The consent or consents required by sections 43-104 and 43-105 or section 43-104.07, the documents required by section 43-104.07 or the documents required by sections 43-104.08 to 43-104.25, and a completed preplacement adoptive home study if required by section 43-107 shall be filed prior to the hearing required in section 43-103.

The county court of the county in which the person or persons desiring to adopt a child reside has jurisdiction of adoption proceedings, except that if a separate juvenile court already has jurisdiction over the child to be adopted under the Nebraska Juvenile Code, such separate juvenile court has concurrent jurisdiction with the county court in such adoption proceeding. If a child to be adopted is a ward of any court or a ward of the state at the time of placement and at the time of filing an adoption petition, the person or persons desiring to adopt shall not be required to be residents of Nebraska. The petition and all other court filings for an adoption proceeding shall be filed with the clerk of the county court. The party shall state in the petition whether such party requests that the proceeding be heard by the county court or, in cases in which a separate juvenile court already has jurisdiction over the child to be adopted under the Nebraska Juvenile Code, such separate juvenile court. Such proceeding is considered a county court proceeding even if heard by a separate juvenile court judge and an order of the separate juvenile court in such adoption proceeding has the force and effect of a county court order. The testimony in an adoption proceeding heard before a separate juvenile court judge shall be preserved as in any other separate juvenile court proceeding.

Except as set out in subdivisions (1)(b)(ii), (iii), (iv), and (v) of section 43-107, an adoption decree shall not be issued until at least six months after an adoptive home study has been completed by the Department of Health and Human Services or a licensed child placement agency.

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This section and sections 43-103 and 43-104, construed together, require that before a county court entertains a decision on the merits in an adoption proceeding, all those statutorily required to consent have done so. In re Adoption of Chase T., 295 Neb. 390, 888 N.W.2d 507 (2016).

Under this section, a county court or juvenile court will ordinarily have jurisdiction over an adoption proceeding. But district courts have inherent equity jurisdiction to resolve custody disputes, and they have jurisdiction over habeas proceedings challenging adoption proceedings. Accordingly, a county court's statutory jurisdiction over an adoption petition does not give it exclusive jurisdiction to resolve challenges to Nebraska's adoption statutes that could have foreclosed the adoption. In re Adoption of Jaelyn B., 293 Neb. 917, 883 N.W.2d 22 (2016).

Failure to sign and verify petition was not jurisdictional. Hiatt v. Menendez, 157 Neb. 914, 62 N.W.2d 123 (1954).

County court in adoption proceeding determines question of permanent custody and control of minor. Krell v. Jenkins, 157 Neb. 554, 60 N.W.2d 613 (1953).

Statutory procedure for adoption must be followed. In re Petition of Ritchie, 155 Neb. 824, 53 N.W.2d 753 (1952).