HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 1452

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                       Human Services

Title:  An act relating to adoption.

Brief Description:  Specifying information that must be made available to parties affected by adoption.

Sponsors:  Representatives Riley, Heavey, Brown, Flemming, Karahalios, Cooke, Wineberry, Valle, Romero, Leonard, G. Cole, Mielke, Anderson and Ballard.

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Human Services, March 1, 1993, DPS.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  Signed by 8 members:  Representatives Leonard, Chair; Riley, Vice Chair; Cooke, Ranking Minority Member; Talcott, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Brown; Karahalios; Lisk; and Thibaudeau.

Minority Report:  Do not pass.  Signed by 1 member:  Representative Padden.

Staff:  David Knutson (786-7146).

Background:  People adopting children receive written information on adoption related services.  People who facilitate adoptions are required to provide family background and related reports on the adoptive child to the adoptive parent.  The reports cannot reveal the identity of the birth parent.

Summary of Substitute Bill: The types of nonidentifying information which can be provided to adoptive parents when they adopt a child are enumerated.  The Department of Health is required to provide a noncertified copy of the original birth certificate to the adoptee, after the adoptee's 18th birthday, unless the birth parent has signed an affidavit of nondisclosure.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:  Nonidentifying information will be made available to adoptive parents if it is reasonably available.  Birth parents are able to sign an affidavit of nondisclosure, if the child they place for adoption is born after October 1, 1993, and they do not want the adoptee to receive a copy of the original birth certificate after his or her 18th birthday.  The requirement that adoptive parents receive a specific brochure is removed.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date of Substitute Bill:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  Agencies and individuals involved in adoptions need a uniform definition of nonidentifying information when providing adoptive parents with information on the adoptive child.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Representative Riley, Prime Sponsor; Dini Duclos, Jane Silberberg, Mark Demaray and Robert Swanson, Medina Children's Services; and Carole Vandenbos, Tish Bennett and Catny Sortais, Washington Adoption Rights Movement.