65C-16.016 Access to Closed Adoption Records.
(1) The confidentiality of adoption records, original birth records, and court files is protected by sealing them upon adoption finalization. Persons seeking information from those records will be referred to the headquarters Office of Family Safety for assistance. Florida law requires non-identifying information to be released to adoptive parents and adult adoptees but does not allow access to the record by other parties.
(2) Requests for information from closed adoption records must be written, and no information will be released by telephone. Because records must be indexed by names of the adoptive parents, that information must be included in the letter requesting release of information as well as some form of identification such as a photocopy of the client’s driver’s license or birth certificate.
(3) In order to respond to written requests from adoptive parents or adult adoptees for non-identifying information, the department or the community based care provider agency must be able to access the adoption records and other records which concern the adoptee. The department or community based care provider agency shall retain as confidential all records relating to each child who became adopted through the department’s adoption program. These confidential records shall be referred to as department closed adoption records and shall be retained in the circuit/region or in the community based care provider agency until called for by the headquarters Office of Family Safety for permanent storage.
(4) The department will assume responsibilities for the closed adoption records of private licensed child placing agencies in Florida who cease to operate.
Specific Authority 63.233 FS. Law Implemented 63.162, 63.233 FS. History–New 5-20-91, Amended 4-28-92, 4-19-94, Formerly 10M-8.024, Amended 8-19-03, 11-30-08.
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