Hawaii Adoption Law Overview
Adoptees or adoptive parents requesting non-identifying information contained in the records concerning ethnic background and necessary medical information will be permitted access to such information.
An adopted adult (age 18) may submit to the family court a written request for the inspection of his or her adoption records. The Family Court will forward to the last known addresses of each birth parent notice of the request for inspection and accompanying papers. Unless the birth parent signs an affidavit requesting confidentiality and it is received by the Family Court within sixty days of the date of the notice, the birth parent will be deemed to have waived any rights of confidentiality and the records will be shown to the requesting adoptee. (Note: a birth parent may file a request for confidentiality for ten years, which may be renewed to cover the birth parent's lifetime. Affidavits of confidentiality expire at the death of the birth parent).
If the original notice sent by the court is undeliverable, the Court will designate an agent to undertake a diligent search for the birth parent to confidentially provide the notice that otherwise would have been provided by mail. The appointed agent has 120 days in which to conduct such a search and notify the birth parent of the request for access to records.
If the birth parent cannot be found, access shall nonetheless be given to the adult adoptee. If one birth parent is found and has given consent, but the other has not, the adult adoptee will not be permitted access to identifying information about the non-consenting birth parent.
In adoptions occurring after January 1, 1991, the "search" provisions of the statute are obviated by notice to birth parents of the new law at the time of the adoption.
With respect to birth parent access to identifying information about an adoptee who has attained the age of eighteen, reciprocal provisions for notice and an opportunity to file affidavits of confidentiality apply. Birth parents may also ask for copies of the original birth certificates of their children.
Hawaii Rev. Stat. 338-20.