Parental Rights: The childs real father has been dead

My boyfriend Brian has been taking care of & acting as the father to his ex-girlfriends little girl since she was 2 years old. She is now 11 years old and he wants to adopt her or get some kind of rights because the mom is always punishing the child by not letting her go with her Brian. The childs real father has been dead for about a year and a half, but even when he was alive he never took care of her. Brian does not give the mother money directly to support Justine because she has a drug problem. He claims her on his taxes, he goes to all of her teacher meetings , he takes her to her doctors appointments, he buys all of her clothes, he buys her food, even her tokens so she can get to school when he is working, and most of all her loves her as if she was his own. The mother abuses this little girl not only emotionally, but physically as well. We just want to know if there is anything he can do to get some kind of rights for being the only parental figure in her life that she can rely on. Is this at all possible?
Thank you,

Christine Goldate

He normally does not have any parental rights unless she approves. He could try some extraordinary attempt in court but it would seem quite difficult.