2021 Colorado Code
Title 19 - Children's Code
Article 5 - Relinquishment and Adoption
Part 2 - Adoption
§ 19-5-213. Compensation for Placing Child Prohibited

1. 1. No person shall offer, give, charge, or receive any money or other consideration or thing of value in connection with the relinquishment and adoption, except attorney fees and such other charges and fees as may be approved by the court.
   2. No person, other than an adoption exchange whose membership includes county departments and child placement agencies, a licensed child placement agency, or a county department, shall offer, give, charge, or receive any money or other consideration or thing of value in connection with locating or identifying for purposes of adoption any child, natural parent, expectant natural parent, or prospective adoptive parent; except that physicians and attorneys may charge reasonable fees for professional services customarily performed by such persons.
   3. A child who is placed by a county department in a foster care home operated by a child placement agency shall be deemed, for purposes of payment to the child placement agency, to remain in foster care status for purposes of payment of consideration to the child placement agency until the date that the final decree of adoption is entered or until the date that the child is returned to his or her biological parent's home, unless otherwise negotiated in the contract between the child placement agency and the county department.

2. [ ] Any person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for ninety days in the county jail, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(2) [ ] Any person who violates the provisions of this section commits a class 2 misdemeanor.

History. Source: L. 87: Entire title R&RE, p. 811, § 1, effective October 1. L. 2005: (1) amended, p. 970, § 4, effective June 2. L. 2021: (2) amended,(SB 21-271), ch. 462, p. 3221, § 391, effective March 1, 2022.

1. This section was contained in a title that was repealed and reenacted in 1987. Provisions of this section, as it existed in 1987, are similar to those contained in 19-4-115 as said section existed in 1986, the year prior to the repeal and reenactment of this title.
2. Section 803(2) of chapter 462 (SB 21-271), Session Laws of Colorado 2021, provides that changes to this section apply to offenses committed on or after March 1, 2022.

Law reviews. For article, “The Adoption of Children in Colorado”, see 37 Dicta 100 (1960). For article, “Adoption Procedures of Minor Children in Colorado”, see 12 Colo. Law, 1057 (1983).

Trial court may reduce claimed attorney fees when they are excessive. People in Matter of K.M.K., 780 P.2d 43 (Colo. App. 1989).