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Last updated on February 19, 2018

Legislative Update: Florida, New York and All Others

The two big states this legislative session are still New York and Florida, though bills in Florida now appear all but dead. Connecticut may see a bill introduced during the short legislative session, and Massachusetts is still hanging on to the chance for passage of clean legislation that would remove date-based restrictions. Here’s the latest legislative update, with sessions just getting started, in full swing, or about to adjourn.

New York

Adoptee Rights Law Center has partnered with three other organizations to form the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, a coalition pursuing clean and equality-based legislation in New York. Seven bills are currently active, though four bills are companion sets or “same as” bills introduced in both the New York assembly and senate. NYARC supports the “Avella Bill” and has issued a statement endorsing that bill. Members of NYARC are also on Governor Cuomo’s work group that is set to meet in early March to study the issue and to make recommendations. More information is available on the NYARC website, and I encourage people to sign up to pitch in and help.

Florida

Two sets of companion bills are active though both sets are ostensibly controlled by Florida Representative Richard Stark. The bills appear all but dead, with a key committee in the Florida house failing to take them up and the short session ending in mid-March. I’ve written about the status of these bills in Florida, and most advocates for clean legislation have concluded that now is not the time for introducing or pursuing bills in Florida. Sixteen organizations and most adoptees are also opposed to HB357/SB576, the badly drafted bill that contains a 40-year waiting requirement for adoptees before being able to request the OBC.

Connecticut

Connecticut is in a short session, which means no bills can be introduced unless they are first raised by committee. The latest news, however, is that the Joint Committee on Judiciary has agreed to consider a bill, and one will likely be introduced soon. You won’t see it on the interactive map below until the bill is introduced. The Connecticut legislative session ends on May 9.

Massachusetts

Probably one of the simplest OBC access bill ever—coming in at just fourteen words—this is still languishing in a key committee, despite efforts of OBC for Massachusetts to dislodge it and get it to a floor vote. The bill would strike out the following words from the current Massachusetts statute: “on or before July 17, 1974” and “on or after January 1, 2008.” With those fourteen words—most of those being dates and the articles “or” or “on”— it assures equality for all adult adoptees in Massachusetts and would make Massachusetts the tenth state to go clean.

Missouri

Representative Don Phillips, who brought Missouri adoptees the disastrous “Missouri Adoptee Rights Act,” has introduced a pair of strange bills that are hard to figure out. I analyzed them as best I could under the title “What the Missouri Is Going On?” The two bills are currently in committee and no further action has been taken. The Missouri legislature adjourns on May 30.

Others: Iowa, Mississippi, North Carolina, Minnesota

Mississippi had yet another bill that required adoptees to wait forty years before requesting the OBC. That bill died in committee just 15 days after it was introduced. North Carolina still has a bill pending with the same 40-year waiting period as Mississippi and Florida, but with the added requirement that the adoptee know the identities of birth parents before being able to obtain the OBC. It has been sitting in a senate committee since April 2017 and looks dead. Iowa tried another shot at a clean bill, which was introduced recently but contained provisions that corrupted the contact preference form and turned it into an instrument that would prohibit the disclosure of the OBC if a birthparent did not file a CPF. Minnesota’s on-and-off complicated OBC bill will carry over to the upcoming short session, which begins this week, but it is not expected to advance. Rumor in Minnesota as well is that a clean bill will be drafted and hopefully introduced next session after mid-term election results and potential legislative leadership changes are known.

Interactive Map

The full status of all pending bills—as well as laws that have been enacted but are still awaiting full implementation—are reflected in the following interactive map. More maps are available here.

Color Key
Under consideration
Did not advance
Being implemented
2018 Legislative Action Placeholder
2018 Legislative Action

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. In addition, the primary House sponsor is term-limited and also lost in a primary for a state senate seat. He will not be returning to 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. In addition, the primary House sponsor is term-limited and also lost in a primary for a state senate seat. He will not be returning to 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."

Filed Under: Latest News Tagged With: Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina

Gregory D. Luce

I am a Minnesota lawyer, DC-born adoptee, and the founder of Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC. I've been practicing law in Minnesota state and federal courts since 1993. I also have a sense of humor.

Get Involved with Adoptees United Inc.

Logo of Adoptees United Inc.Did you find this post interesting? Then get involved nationally with Adoptees United Inc., a national tax-exempt non-profit organization dedicated to securing equality for all adult adopted people in the US. Find out more here, and join me and others in working for equality.

Did I Miss Something?

I work hard to get the laws and facts straight in every state---and to keep them regularly updated. If you see something that's not quite right or doesn't fit your experience, let me know with either a quick comment or an email.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marley Greiner says

    February 19, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    I have been looking for the Mississippi, Iowa, and Minnesota bills and can’t find them. Can you post the numbers? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Gregory D. Luce says

      February 19, 2018 at 4:35 pm

      Yep.

      Mississippi: SB2885 (Link)
      Minnesota: SF1284 (Link)
      Iowa: HF2157 (Link)

      Reply
  2. Marley Greiner says

    February 19, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    Duh. Never mind. Go them. The links were showing up very light on mynscreen and I couldn’t see them. Do now.

    Reply

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Adoptee Rights Law Center

The Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC is an adoptee-focused legal practice founded by Gregory Luce, a Minnesota lawyer and D.C.-born adoptee.

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Legal representation limited to issues involving Minnesota law and federal immigration law.

Latest Posts

  • Why I Changed Hawaii’s Status
  • What Happens When You Question Adoption
  • Before You Start Spouting Off About Haiti, Amy Coney Barrett, and the ‘Beauty’ of Adoption
  • The Sham Promise of ‘Integrated Birth Certificates’
  • Naturalization Fee to Increase More than 80 Percent in October

Contact Info

Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC
PO Box 19561
Minneapolis Minnesota 55419
T: (612) 221-3947
E: [email protected]

Legal representation limited to issues involving Minnesota law and federal immigration law.

Connecticut

Access Connecticut is an adoptee-focused advocacy organization working to remove Connecticut's current date-based restrictions on obtaining an original birth certificate.

Forms and information about requesting a non-certified copy of an original birth certificate, a right available for some Connecticut adoptees, can be found at the State Vital Records Office here.

The cost for a non-certified copy of an OBC in Connecticut is $65, more than twice the amount charged to non-adoptees for their birth certificates.

Florida

Report: What's at Stake, A Brief History of Adoptee Access to Original Birth Certificates in Florida

Rep. Richard Stark has introduced a badly compromised bill in the Florida legislature for the 2019 session. Bill information is here, and updates will be provided on the Adoptee Rights Law Center's legislative map.

The Florida Adoption Reunion Registry is the registry created by the Florida legislature in 1982.

Iowa Advocacy/Caselaw

Iowa Adoptee & Family Coalition is working to change Iowa law. IAFC however, supports birthparent redaction provisions and is behind efforts to add those provisions to current law.

Lawyers (or others) who want to understand how hard it is to obtain identifying information from court adoption records in Iowa should read the relatively recent Iowa Supreme Court case of In Re RD, 876 NW 2d 786 (Iowa 2016).

Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Health maintains information for adoptees and birth families on the issue of original birth records.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) publishes a Practice Guide for Post-Adoption Search Services.

Legislation introduced in 2019 in Minnesota to reform the process required for an adoptee to request and obtain an original birth certificate did not advance during the session but will carry over to the 2020 session. More information is available on the legislation page.

NYARC/Action in New York

Three state and national organizations, including the Adoptee Rights Law Center, have formed the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition to restore the right of adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificates without conditions or restrictions.

Join the Effort

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I also monitor federal legislation related to intercountry adoptees.

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Gregory D. Luce
PO Box 19561
Minneapolis Minnesota 55419
T: (612) 221-3947
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Legal representation limited to issues involving Minnesota law and federal immigration law.

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