About Adoption Records
Many people wonder about what adoption records contain and what function they serve. Adoption records hold all of the paperwork involved in a person or couple adopting a child (or an adult in rare cases). Adoption records contain the legal recording of adopting a child and seek to ensure that everyone's rights in an adoption are protected. Most states seal adoption records, which is a controversial issue in the adoption community.
Identification
Adoption records contain the legal paperwork involved in completing an adoption. A judge reviews all of the legal paperwork to make sure that due process of law was followed before terminating the birth parents' parental rights and granting legal custody of the adopted child to the adoptive parents. Adoption records are typically sealed, so the general public, and even the parties involved in the adoption, do not have access to those records.
Features
Adoption records generally include the adopted child's original birth certificate, the full identifying information for the birth parents and the adoptive parents, paperwork showing the termination of the birth parents' parental rights, the petition for adoption and the adoption decree signed by a judge. If more than one state was involved in the adoption process, then the adoption records also should include the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) paperwork. Additional adoption paperwork requirements vary by state.
Function
Adoption records attempt to make sure that everyone's rights in an adoption are protected. Birth parents should not have their parental rights terminated without due process of law. Adoptive parents need to know that an adoption is forever and that they do not need to worry about losing custody of their adopted child after the adoption is finalized. Unfortunately, the widespread practice of sealing adoption records has resulted in denying many adult adoptees with access to basic information about themselves, including their original birth certificates.
Effects
An adoption decree declares to the world that an adoptive family is a legal family and is to be treated as such. However, the rest of the paperwork is sealed and, in many states, can't be unsealed later. The practice of sealing adoption records has become a great source of frustration for many adult adoptees and birth parents who would like to search for one another after the adoptee becomes an adult. The identifying information necessary to find one another has been sealed in the adoption records.
Considerations
Adoption records are a necessary part of adoption because all parties' legal rights must be protected. However, is there any justification for keeping these records sealed forever? What is the overriding state interest that prevents a 50-year-old man from gaining access to his sealed adoption records so he can search for his 70-year-old birth mother? Many people within the adoption community are advocating for unsealing adoption records once the adopted child reaches adulthood.
Tags: adopted child, birth parents, adoption records, adoption records, Adoption records, parental rights, records contain