How do guardianships differ from adoptions?
A guardianship is a legal relationship between a minor child and a guardian that gives the guardian certain rights and obligations regarding the child. A guardianship does not sever the legal relationship that exists between a child and his or her biological parents, however. Instead, it co-exists with that legal relationship. An adoption, on the other hand, permanently alters the legal relationship between a child and his or her biological parents. Adopted parents become the legal parents and biological parents give up all parental rights and obligations. This means that biological parents no longer owe child support, and that the child can no longer automatically inherent from his or her biological parents.
