I need to know what are the spec. on the abandonment laws in the state of Ohio. Where I would go to file and what would I need. Two of my sons' have fathers living in the state of Texas, The only time we contact them is when I call them, most of the time the oldest ones dad hands the phone off within 2 mins of answering it. He hasn't seen his dad in 3 years and they never call us. We have gone 6 months with out calling them and I want to just know what I have to do.

You can review them here.

http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/ncpca_statute_child_neglect_abandonment_3_07.pdf

where would you go to claim abandonment on a father of your son?

I think you're misunderstanding what abandonment is. Abandonment is when the custodical parent fails to provide appropriate care. It's not when a non-custodial parent refuses to talk to his children on the telephone. The law can't make a non-custodial parent be a better person; all it can do is make him pay court-ordered child support. If he's not doing that, your recourse is to go back to court to have the child support order enforced.

So you aren't able to take their parental rights away? So that My husband can adopt him?

No, you can't "take" their rights away. They can choose to waive them to allow a step-parent to adopt, but it's their choice, not yours.

hm mm, thank you for your input, I was told by child services that I could "claim abandonment" maybe I am calling it the wrong thing. All I want is custody of this child, The father has nothing to do with him, never took care of him when he was around, just pawned him off on his mother, I am not one to believe that grandparents should be raising our children. Got any other advice for me on how to approach this?

In Ohio you can have his rights terminated under certain conditions, one of them being "lack of contact" which I believe is a year or more. You should know that child support is considered contact. I also believe there has to be a step parent willing to adopt and you should be married at least a year. It would be easier if the dad(s) would agree to the adoption.

I would consult with a local attorney to see how your magistrates handle this kind of thing.

Thank you, that's what I was thinking, the father is just holding on to his rights so he can bad mouth me to his family. He doesn't wan anything to do with the child and refuses to pay support and its the state that is trying to contact him.

In Ohio, abandonment is 90 days without contact in either communication and/or support. In our case, the bio mother had the children taken from her by CPS and she failed to exercise her visitation. By the time we had our final court hearing, she had gone 90+ days and the judge adjudicated that she had abandoned the kids and granted sole custody to the father.

The Probate court would be able to use the abandonment to terminate rights for step parent adoption if after notification has been made and the bio parent shows up to the adoption hearing and cannot show just cause for not being in the child's life. Hopefully you went through all the process of notifying him and/or the Texas courts before you moved to Ohio. That could put a snag in it.