Adopted
Access to Adoption Records
State laws differ in how they handle access to information in sealed adoption records. This document explains and summarizes the types of information made available under state law. Those wishing to access records are encouraged to investigate the laws in the state where the adoption was finalized.
Types of Information Made Available to Adopted Persons
Non-identifying information is generally restricted to descriptive details about the adopted adult and the adopted adult's birth relatives. Policies on what information is collected varies from state to state along with the maintenance and disclosure of that information. The information can include any of the following items:
- Date and place of the adopted adult's birth
- Age of the birth parents and a description of their general physical appearances
- Race, ethnicity, religion and medical history of the birth parents
- Type of termination
- Facts and circumstances relating to the adoptive placement
- Age and sex of children of the birth parents at the time of adoption
- Educational levels of the birth parents and their occupations, interests, skills
- Any supplemental information about the medical or social conditions of members of the birth family provided since the adoption was complete.
Medical history is only rarely updated, making the information as old as the adopted adult. Past records may contain very sparse information collected at the time of the adoption, either due to hesitancy of birth mothers to disclose information or to the lack of importance given to this information by adoption agencies, private facilitators and lawyers. State laws now require collection of more information at the time of the adoption for full disclosure of heath and background information to the adoptive parents.
Identifying information is considered to be data which may lead to the positive identification of an adopted adult, birth mother or birth father. Names, addresses and dates contained in court records or submitted to the state's Department of Vital Statistics are usually considered identifying information.
Listed below are several ways that triad members can obtain identifying information according to their State laws.
Original Birth Certificate
The original birth certificate is only one of the many documents contained within the adoptee's adoption record. Most state laws do not allow adoptees access to their original birth certificate. A few states allow adoptees restricted access to their birth certificate depending on their date of birth, whether the birth parents have filed a consent for release, and/or the birth parents have not filed a request for non-disclosure.
Adopted adults 18 or older have unrestricted access to their original birth certificate in Alaska and Kansas. Tennessee and Oregon have provisions allowing access to original birth certificates for adopted adults, and at the same time allowing birth parents to state if they wish to not to be contacted by the adopted person. A number of states, including Alabama, Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, give adopted adults access to their original birth certificates when a prior consent for the birth parent (s) is on file. Access may also depend on the date of adoption. Delaware gives adopted adults access to original birth certificates unless a request for non-disclosure is on file. In Montana, Vermont and Washington, some adopted adults have access to original birth certificates unless a request for non-disclosure is on file, but access depends on the date of adoption.
