LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE TO

SENATE, No. 287

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED June 5, 1996

      Senate Bill No. 287 of 1996 amends R.S.26:8-40.1 to eliminate language that allows the court, before which an adoption proceeding has taken place, to order that the residence of the adopting parents replace the place of birth on the birth certificate of an adopted child. In the case of a foundling, the bill requires a court of competent jurisdiction to designate the date and place of birth recorded on the original certificate.

Other provisions of the bill:

∙    Allow an adopted person, 18 years of age or older, to obtain an uncertified copy of his original birth certificate, if he submits a written notarized request to the State Registrar.

∙    Allow birth parents a time-limited (12-months from the bill's effective date) opportunity to request confidentiality and that their names not be disclosed on the uncertified birth certificate copy provided to the adopted person. If confidentiality is requested, the State Registrar will ask the birth parents to complete a family medical history form and submit it with any cultural and social history information the birth parents may want to provide to the State Registrar. This information shall be disclosed to the adopted person upon request.

∙    Establish a voluntary information exchange mechanism to permit adopted adults and members of their birth families to record and share their current names, addresses and medical, cultural and social history information.

∙    Direct the Department of Health (DOH), in consultation with the Department of Human Services (DHS), to establish rules and regulations ensuring the accuracy and confidentiality of the information provided to an adoptee and their birth family members. The departments are to report to the Legislature, and to make that report available to the public, on the development and administration of the initiatives established in the bill.

∙    As resources permit, DHS would implement such activities as promoting public service messages in the media and contacting private adoption agencies in the State and human services agencies and private adoption agencies in other states, to increase public awareness of and encourage participation in, the initiatives established in this bill.

      DOH, DHS and the Office of Management and Budget have not provided any fiscal information on the legislation.

      As the legislation's provisions involve procedural changes to the adoption process and the type of information provided in a birth certificate, the Office of Legislative Services does not anticipate the legislation to involve any significant new costs.

This fiscal estimate has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67.