A BILL for an Act to amend and reenact sections 14-15-16 and 23-02.1-18 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to disclosure of information in adoption proceedings and access to birth records.
SB 2284 would revise North Dakota’s adoption-confidentiality and birth-record statutes. The bill updates the rules governing what information may be shared in adoption proceedings, who may request identifying or nonidentifying information, and how child-placing agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services must process those requests. It also amends the law governing new birth records after adoption, legitimation, or paternity determinations, including when an adopted adult may obtain the original birth record.
A major feature of the bill is a more detailed process for disclosure requests involving adopted adults, genetic parents, genetic siblings, and, in limited cases, adult children of deceased adopted individuals. It requires prompt notice to agencies, sets deadlines for searches and certifications, clarifies consent and refusal procedures, and preserves confidentiality unless disclosure is authorized by the relevant person or ordered by a court. The bill also retains special procedures for tribal enrollment inquiries and continues to protect records from public inspection except as specifically allowed by statute.
The bill would amend North Dakota Century Code sections 14-15-16 and 23-02.1-18, affecting adoption courts, the Department of Health and Human Services, the state registrar, and licensed child-placing agencies. It would tighten and clarify the handling of confidential adoption records, disclosure requests, and original birth records, while preserving the general rule that adoption-related records remain sealed unless disclosure is authorized or ordered by a court. It would also reinforce the ability of adopted adults to obtain their original birth records and related adoption documents, subject to the bill’s confidentiality framework.
The bill appears to have been introduced as a policy update to modernize and clarify access to adoption and birth-record information, with no recorded committee transcript or vote details indicating debate in the provided materials. Because the bill failed, it did not advance into law, but the text suggests an effort to balance privacy interests with access rights for adopted persons and biological relatives. The absence of recorded discussion makes it difficult to identify a strong public or legislative consensus beyond the bill’s general reform purpose.
The likely points of contention are the competing interests between privacy and access: adopted individuals and some relatives seeking identifying information versus birth parents or other relatives who may object to disclosure. The bill’s court-order provisions, consent requirements, and rules for when one genetic parent consents and the other cannot be located suggest sensitivity around protecting objecting or unknown parents. Another potential area of concern is the administrative burden on agencies and the department, given the bill’s detailed notice, search, certification, and confidentiality requirements.