Legislative Update: Florida, New York and All Others

House Bill 1713. Represenative Don Phillips initially introduced two bills (HB1713 and HB1714) that purport to change who can request an original birth certificate and who can request identifying information from a court. Both bills upon introduction were deeply flawed, with provisions that did not fully make sense, particularly in the context of adoption and access to original birth certificates. The Senate and House ultimately amended the bills to clarify certain issues, and the legislature passed HB1713, which expands access to an original birth certificate to descendants of adoptees. It has been signed by the Missouri governor and will take effect on August 28, 2018. HB1714, however, did not make it out of committee. More info/update.

S7631B/A9959AB. The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, of which Adoptee Rights Law is a partner, worked to enact this bill this session. It is a clean bill with an unrestricted right of adoptees and their descendants to obtain an OBC. The legislature adjourned on June 20, 2018, without taking up the bill for vote---it remained stuck in committee in both chambers. Go to NYARC • Join the Efforts

House Bill 823. This bill would allow access only to adoptees who are at least 40 years of age who can prove the identities of birth parents. It passed unanimously in the NC House but it has been sitting in a senate committee now for more than a year. Nevertheless, that committee has aggressively begun to work through its backlog of bills, hearing bills nearly every day of session. I expect the committee to bring up H823 this session.

Massachusetts: H.1163/S.1195. A fourteen-word bill that assures equality for all adult adoptees in Massachusetts by eliminating restrictions based on an adoptee's date of adoption. A joint committee reported the bill out favorably, and the bill has been referred to a second committee. Massachusetts has a two-year legislative calendar beginning in odd years, so the bills are still in active in the Massachusetts legislative process. The formal session ended on July 31, 2018, without passage of the bill. Efforts are ongoing at OBCforMA, best accessed on Facebook.

HB 357. House Bill 357 (and companion bill S576) failed to receive a hearing and did not advance in the 2018 session. HB357 would have created three classes of adult adoptees: those adopted after July 1, 2018, those adopted before June 30, 1977, and those adopted betwen 1977 and 2018. For those adopted after July 1, 2018, the adoptee may obtain the OBC at age 18. For everyone else, you either have to wait 40 years after the adoption, know the name of a birth parent, or know that your birth parent is deceased or "presumed to be deceased." You can also obtain a court order. A set of companion clean bills were also filed but those were ostensibly being controlled by the sponsor of HB357. All bills are dead for the session and do not carry over to the next session.The Truth About Florida • Factchecking HB357

HB159. An overhaul of Georgia adoption law that modifies adoptee rights to identifying information, lowering the age to request identifying information from 21 to 18 and eliminating an explicit "good cause" standard for petitioning the court for court or department records. The bill also modifies the procedures followed for intercountry adoptions. It does not change current Georgia law on direct access to an original birth certificate. The bill has been passed and signed by the governor. It becomes effective September 1, 2018.

SB2885. Another attempt to pass legislation that would require an adult adoptee to wait until 40 years after an adoption before being able to request the original birth certificate. It died in committee fifteen days after being introducted.

SF1284. This is a bill carried over from the prior 2017 session and, given the short session in Minnesota in 2018, it is not expected to move at all in the legislature. The bill would remove date-based inequalities and add due process rights to Minnesota's current complicated confidential intermediary (CI) system of access. As of March 22, 2018, the bill is considered dead for this session.

HF2157. What looks like a straightforward clean OBC access bill is instead a bill that corrupts the contact preference form and turns the lack of filing a CPF into a birthparent disclosure veto. It was introduced early in the 2018 session but adoptee rights advocates already consider the bill dead. A Facebook page exists for adoptee rights issues in Iowa and it is following issues in the state.

HB5408. Access Connecticut has been working to get this bill raised by committee during the Connecticut short session, and it paid off: a bill has now been introduced. HB5408 would remove date-based restrictions currently in Connecticut law, which limits the rights of pre-1983 adoptees to obtain an OBC. The Judiciary Committee and the House Appropriations Committee each reported the bill out favorably but it did not ultimately pass out of the House before the session adjourned on May 9, 2018.

HB4864/4865 Two linked bills that will provide the right of former foster youth to investigative files and birth records if parental rights of the child were terminated by the court or relinquished through a parent's plea agreement. Would apply to former foster youth who were later adopted. The bills have received little attention to date in the Michigan legislature.

SB392. SB392 links the release of an original birth certificate to use of the Louisiana voluntary adoption registry. Release of the OBC requires consent of a birthparent, and redaction of information is required if any birthparent objects to release. The bill also calls for a national awareness campaign and appears to give birth siblings the power to prohibit release of the OBC. It was set for hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee A on April 24, but its sponsor deferred action on the bill after hearing from advocates in opposition to it. It is believed the bill is now deferred for the session and the sponsor will convene interested parties to work on modified legislation after the legislature adjourns.

H.3775. Clean bill was introduced in 2017 with numerous sponsors and was thought dead in committee. After nearly a year sitting in a subcommittee, it was reported out with a dirty prospective only amendment (OBC access upon request only for those adopted after 2018). The House then amended it again to add the requiement of birth parent consent for the release of an OBC.The Senate amended the bill to lower the age to request the OBC to 18 but otherwise maintained required consent of a birthparent to release the OBC and only for adoptions finalized after July 1, 2019. It passed both chambers unanimously and was signed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on May 17, 2018. It becomes effective July 1, 2019. An analysis of the bill is here.

HB1. A large adoption/foster care bill that moved quickly through the legislature and which Governor Matt Bevin signed on April 13, 2018. For intercountry adoptions, it removes the phrase "not evidence of United States citizenship" from birth certificates for adoptions completed in Kentucky and for which an OBC from the country of origin is not available. The bill also creates a putative father's registry and allows certified copies of a father's registration to be obtained by the child and others. The primary focus of the bill is also to create various committees to study privatization of all foster care and and to study "performance-based contracting for licensed child-caring facilities and child-placing agencies in the Commonwealth."

House Bill 1713. Represenative Don Phillips initially introduced two bills (HB1713 and HB1714) that purport to change who can request an original birth certificate and who can request identifying information from a court. Both bills upon introduction were deeply flawed, with provisions that did not fully make sense, particularly in the context of adoption and access to original birth certificates. The Senate and House ultimately amended the bills to clarify certain issues, and the legislature passed HB1713, which expands access to an original birth certificate to descendants of adoptees. It has been signed by the Missouri governor and will take effect on August 28, 2018. HB1714, however, did not make it out of committee. More info/update.

S7631B/A9959AB. The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, of which Adoptee Rights Law is a partner, worked to enact this bill this session. It is a clean bill with an unrestricted right of adoptees and their descendants to obtain an OBC. The legislature adjourned on June 20, 2018, without taking up the bill for vote---it remained stuck in committee in both chambers. Go to NYARC • Join the Efforts

House Bill 823. This bill would allow access only to adoptees who are at least 40 years of age who can prove the identities of birth parents. It passed unanimously in the NC House but it has been sitting in a senate committee now for more than a year. Nevertheless, that committee has aggressively begun to work through its backlog of bills, hearing bills nearly every day of session. I expect the committee to bring up H823 this session.

Massachusetts: H.1163/S.1195. A fourteen-word bill that assures equality for all adult adoptees in Massachusetts by eliminating restrictions based on an adoptee's date of adoption. A joint committee reported the bill out favorably, and the bill has been referred to a second committee. Massachusetts has a two-year legislative calendar beginning in odd years, so the bills are still in active in the Massachusetts legislative process. The formal session ended on July 31, 2018, without passage of the bill. Efforts are ongoing at OBCforMA, best accessed on Facebook.

HB 357. House Bill 357 (and companion bill S576) failed to receive a hearing and did not advance in the 2018 session. HB357 would have created three classes of adult adoptees: those adopted after July 1, 2018, those adopted before June 30, 1977, and those adopted betwen 1977 and 2018. For those adopted after July 1, 2018, the adoptee may obtain the OBC at age 18. For everyone else, you either have to wait 40 years after the adoption, know the name of a birth parent, or know that your birth parent is deceased or "presumed to be deceased." You can also obtain a court order. A set of companion clean bills were also filed but those were ostensibly being controlled by the sponsor of HB357. All bills are dead for the session and do not carry over to the next session.The Truth About Florida • Factchecking HB357

HB159. An overhaul of Georgia adoption law that modifies adoptee rights to identifying information, lowering the age to request identifying information from 21 to 18 and eliminating an explicit "good cause" standard for petitioning the court for court or department records. The bill also modifies the procedures followed for intercountry adoptions. It does not change current Georgia law on direct access to an original birth certificate. The bill has been passed and signed by the governor. It becomes effective September 1, 2018.

SB2885. Another attempt to pass legislation that would require an adult adoptee to wait until 40 years after an adoption before being able to request the original birth certificate. It died in committee fifteen days after being introducted.

SF1284. This is a bill carried over from the prior 2017 session and, given the short session in Minnesota in 2018, it is not expected to move at all in the legislature. The bill would remove date-based inequalities and add due process rights to Minnesota's current complicated confidential intermediary (CI) system of access. As of March 22, 2018, the bill is considered dead for this session.

HF2157. What looks like a straightforward clean OBC access bill is instead a bill that corrupts the contact preference form and turns the lack of filing a CPF into a birthparent disclosure veto. It was introduced early in the 2018 session but adoptee rights advocates already consider the bill dead. A Facebook page exists for adoptee rights issues in Iowa and it is following issues in the state.

HB5408. Access Connecticut has been working to get this bill raised by committee during the Connecticut short session, and it paid off: a bill has now been introduced. HB5408 would remove date-based restrictions currently in Connecticut law, which limits the rights of pre-1983 adoptees to obtain an OBC. The Judiciary Committee and the House Appropriations Committee each reported the bill out favorably but it did not ultimately pass out of the House before the session adjourned on May 9, 2018.

HB4864/4865 Two linked bills that will provide the right of former foster youth to investigative files and birth records if parental rights of the child were terminated by the court or relinquished through a parent's plea agreement. Would apply to former foster youth who were later adopted. The bills have received little attention to date in the Michigan legislature.

SB392. SB392 links the release of an original birth certificate to use of the Louisiana voluntary adoption registry. Release of the OBC requires consent of a birthparent, and redaction of information is required if any birthparent objects to release. The bill also calls for a national awareness campaign and appears to give birth siblings the power to prohibit release of the OBC. It was set for hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee A on April 24, but its sponsor deferred action on the bill after hearing from advocates in opposition to it. It is believed the bill is now deferred for the session and the sponsor will convene interested parties to work on modified legislation after the legislature adjourns.

H.3775. Clean bill was introduced in 2017 with numerous sponsors and was thought dead in committee. After nearly a year sitting in a subcommittee, it was reported out with a dirty prospective only amendment (OBC access upon request only for those adopted after 2018). The House then amended it again to add the requiement of birth parent consent for the release of an OBC.The Senate amended the bill to lower the age to request the OBC to 18 but otherwise maintained required consent of a birthparent to release the OBC and only for adoptions finalized after July 1, 2019. It passed both chambers unanimously and was signed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on May 17, 2018. It becomes effective July 1, 2019. An analysis of the bill is here.

HB1. A large adoption/foster care bill that moved quickly through the legislature and which Governor Matt Bevin signed on April 13, 2018. For intercountry adoptions, it removes the phrase "not evidence of United States citizenship" from birth certificates for adoptions completed in Kentucky and for which an OBC from the country of origin is not available. The bill also creates a putative father's registry and allows certified copies of a father's registration to be obtained by the child and others. The primary focus of the bill is also to create various committees to study privatization of all foster care and and to study "performance-based contracting for licensed child-caring facilities and child-placing agencies in the Commonwealth."