Current Status of Bills and Laws
This map shows the status of active bills introduced in current legislative sessions or bills that have been enacted into law but are being implemented. Status is current as of March 12, 2019. Click on a state for more details, which appear below the map (on mobile devices click twice on the state). Additional OBC access interactive maps are available here. Comments/corrections can be sent by email to [email protected].
Color Key
2019 Legislative Action
SB972. This is a raised bill from the Joint Planning and Development Committee, co-chaired by Senate Senator Steve Cassano, the moving force behind clean adoptee rights bills in Connecticut. The bill removes date-based restrictions in current law related to obtaining an OBC. Cassano's committee heard the bill on March 15, 2019, and it is expected to be recommended out and will likely go next to Judiciary. Access Connecticut is coordinating advocacy to support the bill.
H.1892/SD.1123. The same short and sweet bill (14 words long) from prior sessions that closes a date-based loophole in current Massachusetts law, eliminating the discriminatory provision that denies an unrestricted right to the OBC for adoptees who were adopted between 1974 and 2008. H.1892 has been referred to the Joint Committee on Public Health.
HB2725. Representative Gina Calanni of Houston has introduced HB2725, a clean bill with a genuine contact preference form. It is currently in the Public Health Committee awaiting calendaring for a hearing. More information and a summary of the bill is available from the Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition (TXARC). Adoptee Rights Law Center, Equality4Adoptees, Gladney Adoptees for Rights and Equality, and Bastard Nation are core members of TXARC.
Bill has been filed but current text is not available online. It would prospectively eliminate the sealing of OBCs and create a second document called a Certificate of Legal Parentage. As of February 7, 2019, no bill has yet been published. The bill has been opposed in the past by LGBTQ advocates and is not expected to move.
A5494/S3419. Assembly Member David Weprin and Senator Velmanette Montgomery introduced a comprehensive clean bill that would restore the rights of adult adoptees to request and obtain their own original birth certificates. A5494 has more than 80 co-sponsors, more than enough to pass the Assembly, and a slew of organizations in support. The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition has summarized the bill here. It is an unrestricted rights bill and also addresses descendant access as well as access to OBCs held by the New York City Department of Health.
Other bills have been filed, including Republian Senator Andrew Lanza's S2222, a clean bill, and A2691, which is Assembly Member Michael Benedetto's bill. Proponents have called A2691 the "Respect for Adoption" bill because it places adoptive parents on the OBC. Both of these bills are now considered dead.
HF746/SF515. Things are a little confusing in Iowa about all the various bills, but this is clear: HF746 and SF515 are clean companion bills with genuine contact preference forms. HF746 is the latest iteration of the bills bandied about in the House--- it is currently recalendared into the House Ways and Means Committee. SF515 has been voted out of Judiciary and is now on the Senate calendar, though not yet listed on the daily "debate eligible" calendar. The Iowa Adoptee & Family Coalition is advocating for the bills. My breakdown of the bill is here, and it deserves adoptee support.
Note: prior bills are still listed on the Iowa website but have been succeeded and replaced by the clean bills. This includes HF53, a badly discriminatory bill, and SF126, a clean bill. HF746 replaces HF528, also a clean bill.
One other bill, HF137 addresses court adoption records and provides, among other provisions, for the release of adoption records upon filing an affidavit from an adult adoptee requesting the records. It is dead.
HB597. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Richard Stark, started out as a dirty bill that would have mandated reunion with at least one birth parent before an adult adoptee can apply for the original birth certificate. Adoptee Rights Law Center opposed the bill and requested Rep. Stark to withdraw the bill. That letter is here. At the hearing on March 12, Rep. Stark introduced a "strike all" amendment that gutted the bill and substituted technical amendments that do not change Florida law but may negatively impact future clean legislation. More information about the technical amendments is here. A companion bill, S832, remains dirty and provides that an adoptee "may" apply to the registry and connect with a birth parent but appears to omit any requirement to do so. Or not. That provision is difficult to interpret within the context of the overall bill.
SB197. This bill cleans up part of the mess of the law enacted in Indiana, which you can see in its current complications here. The bill mandates the release of "identifying information"---which may include the OBC---from certain entities if they possess the information. Liza Zatonsky of Bastard Nation has a breakdown of the issue here. The bill has already passed the Senate and has now been received in the House, where it is assigned to the Judiciary Committee.
SB2045. Update: this bill has died in committee. This is the third consecutive year for an OBC bill to be introduced in Mississippi, but this time Senator Angela Burks Hill has introduced a bill that provides for the release of a "certified copy of the person's original birth certificate that is clearly marked 'cancelled and revised' if at least twenty-one (21) years have passed since the issuance of a revised birth certificate." Though the bill's online description indicates release at age 21, the bill would not typically allow release until 21 years after adoption. Adoptees whose adoptions were finalized prior to July 1, 1998, would get immediate release upon enactment, and release for others will depend on the date of adoption but no more than 21 years after that adoption. The bill is in the Judiciary committee and must move out of committee by February 5 to remain alive.
HB2313/SB300. SB300 and its companion are dirty bills that allow birth parents to file name redaction requests. If filed, the request would operate to redact a birthparent's name on the OBC. It recently made it through the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee with committee substitutions, which added definitions but otherwise kept the bill dirty. It died after being converted to a study resolution. The West Virginia session ended on March 9.
Worth noting is HB2188. While unrelated to the OBC, it provides the right of an adult adoptee to petition a court to annul the adoption.
SB6. This bill would address alleged inaccuracies in a certificate of foreign birth related to intercountry adoptees, allowing adoptive parents to petition a court to correct inaccurate information. The bill also changes some language in Alabama's current unrestricted OBC statute for domestic adoptees but the changes are nominal and do not change the substance of that portion of the law. It has now been referred to the Judiciary Committee.
HB2698. Representative Frank Carroll, who represents constituents in Maricopa County, has introduced a clean bill that also contains a genuine contact preference form. It failed to make it out of committee to meet the crossover deadline and is considered dead, though a strike all amendment to another active bill may revive it in the Senate, where the other bill is currently sitting. A hearing in the Senate Transportation and Public Hearing Committee that may consider the strike all amendment is scheduled for March 20.
S181/H3131 These bills, added here only for information, are a little strange and confusing. While they modify current South Carolina law and allow birthparents to provide non-identifying medical history to a "prospective adoptive parent," the adoptee may later access the information, but only at age 18 or, if the adoptive parents wish to obtain the information while the adoptee is a minor, by court petition. It's odd to have non-identifying information available at age of majority or, if earlier, only by court order so long as it is in the adoptee's "best interest." S181 has passed the Senate unanimously and is now in the Judiciary Committee in the House. Similarly, H3131 passed the House unanimously and is now in committee in the Senate, though the bills have very little substantive differences.
A clean bill has been jacketed and may be introduced, though it would be past current committee deadlines. In the meantime, a dirty bill that was jacketed never made it to introduction, and a bill that would have reaffirmed current law, which discriminates against adult adoptees in requesting an original birth certificate, was gutted to remove those discriminatory provisions.
SB972. This is a raised bill from the Joint Planning and Development Committee, co-chaired by Senate Senator Steve Cassano, the moving force behind clean adoptee rights bills in Connecticut. The bill removes date-based restrictions in current law related to obtaining an OBC. Cassano's committee heard the bill on March 15, 2019, and it is expected to be recommended out and will likely go next to Judiciary. Access Connecticut is coordinating advocacy to support the bill.
H.1892/SD.1123. The same short and sweet bill (14 words long) from prior sessions that closes a date-based loophole in current Massachusetts law, eliminating the discriminatory provision that denies an unrestricted right to the OBC for adoptees who were adopted between 1974 and 2008. H.1892 has been referred to the Joint Committee on Public Health.
HB2725. Representative Gina Calanni of Houston has introduced HB2725, a clean bill with a genuine contact preference form. It is currently in the Public Health Committee awaiting calendaring for a hearing. More information and a summary of the bill is available from the Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition (TXARC). Adoptee Rights Law Center, Equality4Adoptees, Gladney Adoptees for Rights and Equality, and Bastard Nation are core members of TXARC.
Bill has been filed but current text is not available online. It would prospectively eliminate the sealing of OBCs and create a second document called a Certificate of Legal Parentage. As of February 7, 2019, no bill has yet been published. The bill has been opposed in the past by LGBTQ advocates and is not expected to move.
A5494/S3419. Assembly Member David Weprin and Senator Velmanette Montgomery introduced a comprehensive clean bill that would restore the rights of adult adoptees to request and obtain their own original birth certificates. A5494 has more than 80 co-sponsors, more than enough to pass the Assembly, and a slew of organizations in support. The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition has summarized the bill here. It is an unrestricted rights bill and also addresses descendant access as well as access to OBCs held by the New York City Department of Health.
Other bills have been filed, including Republian Senator Andrew Lanza's S2222, a clean bill, and A2691, which is Assembly Member Michael Benedetto's bill. Proponents have called A2691 the "Respect for Adoption" bill because it places adoptive parents on the OBC. Both of these bills are now considered dead.
HF746/SF515. Things are a little confusing in Iowa about all the various bills, but this is clear: HF746 and SF515 are clean companion bills with genuine contact preference forms. HF746 is the latest iteration of the bills bandied about in the House--- it is currently recalendared into the House Ways and Means Committee. SF515 has been voted out of Judiciary and is now on the Senate calendar, though not yet listed on the daily "debate eligible" calendar. The Iowa Adoptee & Family Coalition is advocating for the bills. My breakdown of the bill is here, and it deserves adoptee support.
Note: prior bills are still listed on the Iowa website but have been succeeded and replaced by the clean bills. This includes HF53, a badly discriminatory bill, and SF126, a clean bill. HF746 replaces HF528, also a clean bill.
One other bill, HF137 addresses court adoption records and provides, among other provisions, for the release of adoption records upon filing an affidavit from an adult adoptee requesting the records. It is dead.
HB597. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Richard Stark, started out as a dirty bill that would have mandated reunion with at least one birth parent before an adult adoptee can apply for the original birth certificate. Adoptee Rights Law Center opposed the bill and requested Rep. Stark to withdraw the bill. That letter is here. At the hearing on March 12, Rep. Stark introduced a "strike all" amendment that gutted the bill and substituted technical amendments that do not change Florida law but may negatively impact future clean legislation. More information about the technical amendments is here. A companion bill, S832, remains dirty and provides that an adoptee "may" apply to the registry and connect with a birth parent but appears to omit any requirement to do so. Or not. That provision is difficult to interpret within the context of the overall bill.
SB197. This bill cleans up part of the mess of the law enacted in Indiana, which you can see in its current complications here. The bill mandates the release of "identifying information"---which may include the OBC---from certain entities if they possess the information. Liza Zatonsky of Bastard Nation has a breakdown of the issue here. The bill has already passed the Senate and has now been received in the House, where it is assigned to the Judiciary Committee.
SB2045. Update: this bill has died in committee. This is the third consecutive year for an OBC bill to be introduced in Mississippi, but this time Senator Angela Burks Hill has introduced a bill that provides for the release of a "certified copy of the person's original birth certificate that is clearly marked 'cancelled and revised' if at least twenty-one (21) years have passed since the issuance of a revised birth certificate." Though the bill's online description indicates release at age 21, the bill would not typically allow release until 21 years after adoption. Adoptees whose adoptions were finalized prior to July 1, 1998, would get immediate release upon enactment, and release for others will depend on the date of adoption but no more than 21 years after that adoption. The bill is in the Judiciary committee and must move out of committee by February 5 to remain alive.
HB2313/SB300. SB300 and its companion are dirty bills that allow birth parents to file name redaction requests. If filed, the request would operate to redact a birthparent's name on the OBC. It recently made it through the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee with committee substitutions, which added definitions but otherwise kept the bill dirty. It died after being converted to a study resolution. The West Virginia session ended on March 9.
Worth noting is HB2188. While unrelated to the OBC, it provides the right of an adult adoptee to petition a court to annul the adoption.
SB6. This bill would address alleged inaccuracies in a certificate of foreign birth related to intercountry adoptees, allowing adoptive parents to petition a court to correct inaccurate information. The bill also changes some language in Alabama's current unrestricted OBC statute for domestic adoptees but the changes are nominal and do not change the substance of that portion of the law. It has now been referred to the Judiciary Committee.
HB2698. Representative Frank Carroll, who represents constituents in Maricopa County, has introduced a clean bill that also contains a genuine contact preference form. It failed to make it out of committee to meet the crossover deadline and is considered dead, though a strike all amendment to another active bill may revive it in the Senate, where the other bill is currently sitting. A hearing in the Senate Transportation and Public Hearing Committee that may consider the strike all amendment is scheduled for March 20.
S181/H3131 These bills, added here only for information, are a little strange and confusing. While they modify current South Carolina law and allow birthparents to provide non-identifying medical history to a "prospective adoptive parent," the adoptee may later access the information, but only at age 18 or, if the adoptive parents wish to obtain the information while the adoptee is a minor, by court petition. It's odd to have non-identifying information available at age of majority or, if earlier, only by court order so long as it is in the adoptee's "best interest." S181 has passed the Senate unanimously and is now in the Judiciary Committee in the House. Similarly, H3131 passed the House unanimously and is now in committee in the Senate, though the bills have very little substantive differences.
A clean bill has been jacketed and may be introduced, though it would be past current committee deadlines. In the meantime, a dirty bill that was jacketed never made it to introduction, and a bill that would have reaffirmed current law, which discriminates against adult adoptees in requesting an original birth certificate, was gutted to remove those discriminatory provisions.
Federal Legislation and Status of OBC Laws in DC
Federal Legislation
HR.5233/S.2522. The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018 would close a loophole in prior legislation that did not provide automatic citizenship for intercountry adoptees who were born prior to February 1983. The current legislation would provide automatic citizenship to nearly all adult adoptees, including those who were adopted prior to 1983. The legislation, however, has exceptions for adult adoptees---adopted by US citizens--- who have already been deported for specific crimes. HR5233 is currently in the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, while S2522 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
S363. The Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee Act of 2019 is a repeat bill from the prior session and would create an advisory committee to make recommendations about intercountry adoptions to the State Department, within Consular Affairs.
HR.5233/S.2522. The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018 would close a loophole in prior legislation that did not provide automatic citizenship for intercountry adoptees who were born prior to February 1983. The current legislation would provide automatic citizenship to nearly all adult adoptees, including those who were adopted prior to 1983. The legislation, however, has exceptions for adult adoptees---adopted by US citizens--- who have already been deported for specific crimes. HR5233 is currently in the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, while S2522 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
S363. The Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee Act of 2019 is a repeat bill from the prior session and would create an advisory committee to make recommendations about intercountry adoptions to the State Department, within Consular Affairs.
Past Legislative Actions
Bills introduced or pending in prior legislative sessions. Active or currently pending legislation—or enacted laws that are being implemented—are listed on the map at the top of this page.
2018
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."
2017
2017 Legislative Action