SENATE, No. 923

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED MARCH 14, 1996

By Senator LIPMAN

An Act establishing a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. a. There is established a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry in the Department of Health. The department shall maintain a registry with the last known names and addresses of an adult adoptee and the adoptee's birth parents and any other identifying information which the adult adoptee or birth parents desire to include in the registry. The registry shall be open with respect to all adoptions in the State, regardless of when they took place. All information in the registry is confidential and shall not be released to the individual registrants without specific written authorization under penalty of law.

    b. The registry shall be available for those persons choosing to enter information, but no one shall be required to do so. No one shall be solicited, sought out, contacted or required to provide adoption related information to the registry. The department may release identifying information only when it receives requests from both the adult adoptee and a birth parent and a match is made.

    c. The department shall make counseling available for a fee for all persons seeking to use the registry and shall inform all affected persons of the availability of the counseling.

    d. All costs for establishing and maintaining the registry shall be obtained through user's fees charged to all persons who register.

    e. The Commissioner of Health shall adopt rules and regulations in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act", P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.) to effectuate the purposes of this act, within 60 days after the enactment of this act.

    2. This act shall take effect 180 days following enactment.

STATEMENT

    This bill establishes a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry in the Department of Health. The department shall maintain a registry with the last known names and addresses of an adult adoptee and the adoptee's birth parents and any other identifying information which the adult adoptee or the birth parents desire to include in the registry. The registry shall be open with respect to all adoptions in the State, regardless of when they took place.

    The registry shall be available for those persons choosing to enter information, but no one shall be required to do so. The department may release identifying information only when it receives requests from both the adult adoptee and a birth parent and a match is made.

    The department shall make counseling available for a fee for all persons seeking to use the registry and shall inform all affected persons of the availability of the counseling.

    All costs for establishing and maintaining the registry shall be obtained through user's fees charged to all persons who register.

Establishes a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry in DOH.