Change in Adoption record Laws

Passed unanimously on December 19, 2013, by Governor John Kasich with a 91-2 vote in the House, the Senate Bill 23 gives the people the right to retrieve the files and certificates in relation to the adoption made within that particular period of time. Accordingly, individuals who have adopted between January 1, 1964 and September 18, 1996, have started requesting information from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) with effect from March 20, 2015.As a result, information for almost 400,000 people has been blocked without any orders from the court.

The Senate Bill outrightly repealed the laws that permitted these adoptees who became available or potentially available for adoption to file a petition in probate court so that information about the adoptee’s biological family could be obtained.

The bill outlines a procedure in which the adopted persons, who are at least 18 years of age may submit a written request to the ODH for ODH to provide the adopted person with a copy of the contents of the person’s adoption file. It further allows a biological parent who has a biological parent’s name, redaction request form accepted by ODH, to request that ODH remove that form from the adoption file of the adopted person to whom the form pertains and specifies the information the biological parent must provide, in order for ODH to remove the form from the adoption file.[1]

The law has given the people of Ohio an added advantage by giving them a rightful opportunity to know about their lineage and medical history.