Amendment to Illinois Adoption Act Broadens Adoptee Accessibility of Information

 Posted on January 28, 2015 in Paternity

For over 50 years, the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) has been providing assistance to those choosing to adopt. Remarkably, this organization has placed over 17,000 children over the past decade, and with the recent amendment to the Illinois Adoption Act (750 ILCS 50), many adoptees and their family members are gaining wider access to personal and medical information through the Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange IARMIE.

Although many states are still considered "closed states" where all information regarding an adoption is sealed, Illinois has acted to broaden the rights of adoptees and immediate family members by making it easier to request and access information without petitioning the courts.

If you were adopted through the DCFS or are an immediate family member of a deceased adopted adult, the following provides a brief summary of the new amendment.

Adopted Individuals Born Before January 1, 1946

Adoptees with birthdays before 1946 may now do the following to find out more information from the state about their families:

• They may now request a non-certified copy of an original birth certificate,
• Documentation may include all information as the original birth certificate,
• Birth parents have the option to remove identifying information,
• If undecided, birth parents do not have to officially respond,
• Adopted persons, surviving spouse, sibling or adult child can request information,
• If adoptee is deceased, proof of death and kinship must be provided,
• Birth parents can now indicate whether or how they wish to be contacted, and
• Birth parents and those requesting information will be notified as to the action through the Registry.

For those involved in the adoption process, the results can be rewarding and satisfying but often there remains questions of origin. Although an extensive data study, Child Trends, published by a nonpartisan Washington research group, reported that 85 percent of adopted children are generally in good health and happy, adoption also poses the question of "who am I really?" for many. The decision by the Illinois General Assembly to broaden the accessibility of information may finally provide the answers.