H-4840.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2810

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1998 Regular Session

By House Committee on Children & Family Services (originally sponsored by Representatives Cooke, Boldt, Ballasiotes, Reams, Wensman, Smith, Kastama, Mitchell, D. Schmidt, McCune, Wolfe, Backlund and Tokuda)

Read first time 02/03/98.  Referred to Committee on .

Authorizing disclosure of an adopted person's original birth certificate upon request by the adopted person.

    AN ACT Relating to disclosure of adoption information; and amending RCW 26.33.340 and 26.33.345.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 26.33.340 and 1993 c 81 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

    Department, agency, and court files regarding an adoption shall be confidential except as provided for in RCW 26.33.345 and except that reasonably available nonidentifying information ((may)) shall be disclosed upon the written request for the information from the adoptive parent, the adoptee, or the birth parent.  If the adoption facilitator refuses to disclose nonidentifying information, the individual may petition the superior court.  Identifying information may also be disclosed through the procedure described in RCW 26.33.343 and 26.33.345.

    Sec. 2.  RCW 26.33.345 and 1993 c 81 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) The department of social and health services, adoption agencies, and independent adoption facilitators shall release the name and location of the court where a relinquishment of parental rights or finalization of an adoption took place to an adult adoptee, a birth parent of an adult adoptee, an adoptive parent, a birth or adoptive grandparent of an adult adoptee, or an adult sibling of an adult adoptee, or the legal guardian of any of these.

    (2) The department of health shall make available a noncertified copy of the original birth certificate of a child to the child's birth parents upon request.

    (3) ((For adoptions finalized after October 1, 1993)) After receiving a request by an adopted person eighteen years of age or older, the department of health shall ((make available)) provide the person with a noncertified copy of the adopted person's original birth certificate ((to the adoptee after the adoptee's eighteenth birthday unless the birth parent has filed an affidavit of nondisclosure)).

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