SHB 1525 -
By Committee on Human Services & Corrections
ADOPTED 04/16/2013
Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
"Sec. 1 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)(a) For adoptions finalized after October 1, 1993, the
department of health shall ((make available)) provide a noncertified
copy of the original birth certificate to ((the adoptee after the
adoptee's eighteenth birthday unless the birth parent has filed an
affidavit of nondisclosure)) an adoptee eighteen years of age or older
upon request, unless the birth parent has filed an affidavit of
nondisclosure before the effective date of this section or a contact
preference form that indicates he or she does not want the original
birth certificate released: PROVIDED, That the affidavit of
nondisclosure, the contact preference form, or both have not expired.
(b) For adoptions finalized on or before October 1, 1993, the
department of health may not provide a noncertified copy of the
original birth certificate to the adoptee until after June 30, 2014.
After June 30, 2014, the department of health shall provide a
noncertified copy of the original birth certificate to an adoptee
eighteen years of age or older upon request, unless the birth parent
has filed a contact preference form that indicates he or she does not
want the original birth certificate released: PROVIDED, That the
contact preference form has not expired.
(c) An affidavit of nondisclosure expires upon the death of the
birth parent.
(4)(a) Regardless of whether a birth parent has filed an affidavit
of nondisclosure or when the adoption was finalized, a birth parent may
at any time complete a contact preference form stating his or her
preference about personal contact with the adoptee, which, if
available, must accompany an original birth certificate provided to an
adoptee under subsection (3) of this section.
(b) The contact preference form must include the following options:
(i) I would like to be contacted. I give the department of health
consent to provide the adoptee with a noncertified copy of his or her
original birth certificate;
(ii) I would like to be contacted only through a confidential
intermediary as described in RCW 26.33.343. I give the department of
health consent to provide the adoptee with a noncertified copy of his
or her original birth certificate;
(iii) I prefer not to be contacted and have completed the birth
parent updated medical history form. I give the department of health
consent to provide the adoptee with a noncertified copy of his or her
original birth certificate; and
(iv) I prefer not to be contacted and have completed the birth
parent updated medical history form. I do not want a noncertified copy
of the original birth certificate released to the adoptee.
(c) If the birth parent indicates he or she prefers not to be
contacted, personally identifying information on the contact preference
form must be kept confidential and may not be released.
(d) Nothing in this section precludes a birth parent from
subsequently filing another contact preference form to rescind the
previous contact preference form and state a different preference.
(e) A contact preference form expires upon the death of the birth
parent.
(5) If a birth parent files a contact preference form, the birth
parent must also file an updated medical history form with the
department of health. Upon request of the adoptee, the department of
health must provide the adoptee with the updated medical history form
filed by the adoptee's birth parent.
(6) Both a completed contact preference form and birth parent
updated medical history form are confidential and must be placed in the
adoptee's sealed file.
(7) If a birth parent files a contact preference form within six
months after the first time an adoptee requests a copy of his or her
original birth certificate as provided in subsection (3) of this
section, the department of health must forward the contact preference
form and the birth parent updated medical history form to the address
of the adoptee.
(8) The department of health may charge a fee not to exceed twenty
dollars for providing a noncertified copy of a birth certificate to an
adoptee.
(9) The department of health must create the contact preference
form and an updated medical history form. The contact preference form
must provide a method to ensure personally identifying information can
be kept confidential. The updated medical history form may not require
the birth parent to disclose any identifying information about the
birth parent.
(10) If the department of health does not provide an adoptee with
a noncertified copy of the original birth certificate because a valid
affidavit of nondisclosure or contact preference form has been filed,
the adoptee may request, no more than once per year, that the
department of health attempt to determine if the birth parent is
deceased. Upon request of the adoptee, the department of health must
make a reasonable effort to search public records that are accessible
and already available to the department of health to determine if the
birth parent is deceased. The department of health may charge the
adoptee a reasonable fee to cover the cost of conducting a search."
SHB 1525 -
By Committee on Human Services & Corrections
ADOPTED 04/16/2013
On page 1, line 2 of the title, after "information;" strike the remainder of the title and insert "and amending RCW 26.33.345."
EFFECT: Includes the public records search provision from the House bill and adopts the Senate bill process for releasing birth certificates to adoptees; expands on the options that a birth parent may select on the contact preference form to include language about whether the birth parent consents to the release of the original birth certificate; amends language from "adopted person" to "adoptee" to better match the rest of the chapter; removes provision requiring DOH to place the contact preference form and updated medical history form in a secure file until it can be placed in the sealed file.