It is natural and expected for virtually any person who was adopted or any person who put a child up for adoption to want to find their family. Unfortunately, adoption is a very fragile issue with many families, and the feelings, wishes, privacy, and safety of the adoptive parents, birthparents, and adoptees must be taken into consideration. As adoption and child services are legislated by the state, policies on adoption records vary widely. With the consideration of all concerned parties in mind, most states require some sort of hearing and agreement between both sets of parents and the adoptee precede the acquisition of certain records.
Some states allow adoption record information to be released in certain cases if it is non-identifying information. What information is considered non-identifying is usually determined by the state and usually includes such things as ages, physical descriptions, hobbies and some medical data without disclosing or giving clues as to the actual identity of the person involved.
If interested parties wish to have records released, there are several ways in which states allow the request for disclosure to be filed. Many states require that interested parties file a passive registry with a public or private adoption agency. The adoption agency will then search for a match between the adoptee and the birthparent. Some registries or agencies require both adoptive parents, both birthparents, and the adoptee to sign the registry before it can be filed.
Some states allow for a passive registry to be filed. A passive registry allows for an interested party to contact a public or private agency and have them use a third party to search for and contact the person being sought. The agency will determine that both the seeking party and the found party are willing to allow adoption records to be disclosed. An intermediary system is similar to a passive registry in that the court allows records to be released to an intermediary upon the request of an interested party so they can contact the other party and ask for their permission to have the records be released.
Also, some states allow a waiver of confidentiality to determine if adoption records should be disclosed. If a party files a wavier of confidentiality that allows for identifying or non-identifying information to be released to the other party, then some states allow for that information to be accessed by an interested party.
The opposite of a wavier of confidentiality is a disclosure or contact veto. If an interested party files a disclosure veto, then the state will not allow the release of records. If an interested party files a contact veto, then the state must not allow the other party to contact them.
In rare cases, all parties agree upon an open adoption. In an open adoption, both parties agree to allow the birth parents to have some involvement in the life of the adoptee. In the case of an open adoption, most states require that the adoption records not be released unless the agreement occurs in a state where the adoptive parents are allowed to request that the records be released. Despite the fact that open adoptions are agreements between both parties, the adoptive parents can terminate the agreement at any time without the birth parents being allowed any legal recourse.
By Alex Turman