US Adoption Records

by Tina M. Musso ©2000

One of the largest hobbies in America is genealogy. However, three to five percent of the population cannot participate because they are adopted. There is only a 12 percent chance of getting identifying information just by requesting it. The freedom of information act is not available to adoptees, who are still treated as "children" under the laws of 44 states in the union. The records were not always closed and the current maze of laws is confusing. Each state has its own rules and determines what information is available, providing different levels of data to the adoption community. (See Table 1.) The information ranges from non-identifying datat, to registries and original birth certificates.

Adoption Laws

Adoption laws have been evolving over the past 70 years to systematically deny adoptees information about their pasts. In the nineteen-thirties, states did not lock up original birth certificates (OBC), although they began to issue amended ones. This was part of a social effort to integrate the adopted children into their "new" families.

By the mid-fifties, laws began appearing on the books that denied the birth parents access to court records and birth certificates. The closure of records to the adoptees began in the sixties. As recently as 1986, Missouri enacted a statute denying adult adoptees access to their OBC's.

A state with closed records means that no OBC's are available. Many states will not release the OBC even with a court order to release all adoption records. In 1996, 53 percent of Texas adoptions were by family members. Although a stepparent, grand­parent, etc. adopted them none of the OBC's are available to these children. It is unclear why a familial adoption would require locking the OBC up in a vault, unless it was just easier on the Department of Vital Statistics.

Non-Identifying Information

Only 42 states and Puerto Rico allow adult adoptees and adoptive families access to non-identifying information (non-id) in any form. What is considered non-id is confusing and can differ from by state, as well as by county.

Nine states allow birth parents to have non-identifying information about the family that adopted the child. Eight states and the District of Columbia have no provision for releasing non-id at all, which means that the decision is up to the agency that handled the adoption as to whether any information is revealed.

What constitutes non-id depends upon the state and agency guidelines, the person reviewing the file, and, of course, the information in the file provided by the birth parent. In New York, the fee for obtaining your medical non-id is was $75 and, as of April 1, 2000, free, however, there is a six-month wait. The remaining 41 states that provide non-id do so at no or minimal cost. Non-id can take from six weeks to over a year to receive from the agency; there are no tried and true rules.

State Reunion Registries

Currently, 35 states have some form of registry available to adoptees and birth parents. In many instances, the registries are passive and all require a consent form from all parties (including the adoptive parents in some instances) before any identifying information is released. Although registries are theoretically a good idea, most state registries have a match rate of less than ten per year.

The number of people signing up limits registries. The larger the database, the greater is the possibility of a match. Most states do not advertise their registries. Birth parents are not aware of the possibility. Even if a state were to advertise, many people no longer live in the state where the adoption took place.

The most comprehensive mutual consent registry is the International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR). ISRR has the highest reunion rate and is recommended to most searchers within a short time of starting out. With the ability to match non-identifying informa­tion and names via a soundex search, ISRR uses real people to review potential matches before any information is released. There is also no requirement that the person seeking be the adoptee or the birth parent, but can be any family member. Hundreds are reunited each year through ISRR.

Confidential Intermediary System

In the past twenty years, many states have implemented confidential intermediary (CI) systems to allow adoptees access to their iden­tifying information. The theory behind CI's is that the state or some other des­ignated authority would conduct a search for the missing party, i.e., birth parent or adoptee. The CI would make contact and obtain a waiver to release identifying information. If the contacted party did not agree or could not be found, then the files are locked back up and the searcher is out of luck. The costs, of course, are also born by the searcher, no matter what the outcome. There is some form of CI system in 27 states.

Unfortunately, CI's are very costly and there is little or no training on making contact or conducting the searches. If the initial contact is not handled well, then all future relationships are compromised. In addition, any possibility of finding out medical information or other back­ground is reduced to extremely long odds.

Original Birth Certificates

Original birth certificates (OBC's) are only available to adult adoptees in (three) five states: Alaska, Connecticut, Kansas, Oregon (06/2000) and Alabama (08/2000). Maryland and Ohio allow OBC's to go to those born before 1947 and 1964, respectively.

Adoption Records

Access to adoption records is only available in ten percent of the states in the Union. All remaining information is available at the whim of other people, i.e., judges, clerks, social workers, and confidential intermediaries.

Most states allow the adoptee to petition for their adoption records, which include iden­tifying information. However, only Idaho allows petitions without providing "compelling" reasons. In all other cases, it requires a major medical problem or a sympathetic judge.

State laws can also be interpreted differently at the county level. In California, there are eleven "open" counties. In these counties, the birth parent or the adoptive parent is allowed access to the original court records. The adoptee is not allowed access because he was not a "party to the original adoption". Most of these counties require a trip to the courthouse by the person seeking the information.

Closed Adoption Legislation

Although "open" adoptions have been occurring since the early eighties, new legisla­tion is continuing to appear in state assemblies across the country to further restrict search and information availability. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois all had bills introduced or reintroduced in 1999 that would enact versions of the Uniform Adoption Act (UAA). This act would seal all adoption records for 99 years and provide for criminal penalties against those who circumvent the statute by revealing information. To date, all efforts to enact the UAA have failed.

Legislation Releasing Identifying Information

In 1996, Tennessee passed a law allowing adult adoptees access to their adoption records. After four years of injunctions and court hearings, the law went into full effect in January of 2000 after being upheld by the US and Tennessee Supreme Courts. Unlike a CI system, Tennessee allows the records to be released as long as no contact veto has been filed with the state.

In 1999, the Oregon voters passed a new law via a ballot initiative that allows adult adoptees access to their adoption records with­out any caveats. The state legislature followed almost immediately with a statute putting this law into place. However, the law is currently pending due to an injunction while it, too, under­goes the judicial process. With Tennessee's case law, however, it is likely that the Oregon adoption records will become available within a few years.

UPDATE: May 30, 2000

- The Oregon Law has now gone into effect. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor refused to continue the injunction holding the implementation of the law while the Supreme Court reviews the case. Adoptees are beginning to receive their original birth certificates from that State.

UPDATE: June 2000

- The Alabama Legislature has passed a law allowing adult adoptees copies of their original documents. This law has been signed by the governor and is scheduled to go into effect August 30, 2000, barring injunctions.

Conclusion

The practice of issuing new birth certificates was started to help create a new identity for adopted children and their families. After 70 years, the process has been redefined to deny access to a child's past under all but the most extreme cir­cumstances. Adoptees are not created equal under the current family law system. The avail­ability of information is arbitrary and often dependent on one or more bureaucrats in an entrenched system. With only five states (soon to be six) providing identifying information with a minimum of work, most states require some form of intermediary before information is released.

The trend is moving, slowly, towards releasing information to adult adoptees. It is our past and should be our right. Someday, adult adoptees will be able to receive a copy of their original birth certificate for $15, just like everyone else.

Tina M. Musso is the youngest of four adoptees. She searched for and found her birth mother and family in 1997. As a result of her search, she developed and manages Tina's Adoption Reform and Search Pages. In addition to raising her two children, AJ and Grace, Tina works as a web developer for Managed Care Systems in San Antonio, Texas. She can be reached at tmusso@usa.net

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