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HB 818

Birth Certificates for Persons Adopted.

2025-2026 Session Introduced by Brian Biggs and 12 co-sponsors

HB 818 gives adoptees a replacement birth certificate showing adoptive info with no adoption reference, seals originals, and tightens privacy.

Special Message Sent To Senate
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Bill Summary · HB 818

Summary — HB 818: Birth Certificates for Persons Adopted

Status: Passed House; Special Message Sent to Senate (House Bill 818, “Birth Certificates for Persons Adopted”)
Introduced: 2025 — Sponsored by Representatives N. Jackson, Loftis, Biggs, and others

Purpose

HB 818 revises North Carolina law to make access to updated (post‑adoption) birth certificates for adoptees more like access for non‑adopted persons. It requires the State Registrar to issue a sealed original and a new birth certificate that reflects adoptive information without any reference to the adoption, and it clarifies who may obtain certified copies and how county registers of deeds may participate.

Key provisions

  • New birth certificate content (G.S. 48‑9‑107):

    • Upon receiving adoption documentation, the State Registrar must prepare a new birth certificate listing the adoptee’s full adoptive name, sex, state and date of birth, adoptive parents’ names (including mother’s maiden name if applicable), and other relevant information.
    • The new certificate must contain no reference to the adoption.

  • Sealing and record handling:

    • The State Registrar must seal the original birth certificate and all adoption‑related records and retain them under seal.
    • The State Registrar notifies the county register of deeds or health official in the county of birth to remove the adoptee’s original birth certificate from local files, delete index entries, and forward the original to the State Registrar.

  • Who may receive certified copies:

    • Certified typed copies or abstracts of the new certificate may be provided to the adoptee, the adoptee’s children, the adoptive parents, the adoptee’s spouse, brothers, and sisters (defined as adoptive relations).

  • County register of deeds access and duties:

    • Registers of deeds will be given access to adoptee records in the electronic birth registration system to issue certified copies or abstracts (subsection d1).
    • If a requested adoptee record is not digitized, the register may request digitization; the State Registrar must fulfill such requests within two business days (subsection d2).
    • Registers of deeds must not add adoptee birth certificates to their public files or indexes.

  • Privacy and inspection limits:

    • Adoptee birth certificates are not open to public inspection under G.S. 130A‑99.
    • The State Registrar shall not charge a fee under G.S. 130A‑93.1(a)(1) to a register of deeds issuing an adoptee birth certificate under subsection (d1).

  • Training requirements:

    • Registers of deeds and any designated staff who will issue adoptee birth certificates must complete initial and annual training provided by the State Registrar on adoptee information privacy and use of the birth registration system.
    • The State Registrar must make initial training available by November 1, 2025; annual training by July 1, 2026.
    • Registers of deeds and staff must complete initial training by January 30, 2026.

Who is affected

  • Primary: adults and minors who are adoptees and their immediate adoptive family (parents, children, spouse, siblings).
  • Administrative: State Registrar (vital records office), county registers of deeds, local health departments, clerks of superior court (who provide adoption documents), and county IT/records staff responsible for digitization and training.
  • Public access policy: public inspection of adoptee birth records is restricted; local public indexes must be purged of adoptee entries.

Procedural/timeline notes

  • Effective date (per the bill text): Section establishing the new processes (Section 1.1 in the Second Edition) becomes effective January 1, 2026. Training and digitization deadlines are set in the text: initial training availability by November 1, 2025; registers/staff to complete initial training by January 30, 2026; annual training available by July 1, 2026.
  • Operational implication: State Registrar must implement electronic access for registers of deeds, provide training, and establish workflows to digitize and process sealed records within short timelines (including the two‑business‑day digitization response requirement).

Potential impacts

  • For adoptees: easier, nondisclosing access to a replacement birth certificate that reads like a standard birth certificate (no adoption notation).
  • For counties and the State: administrative work and likely modest costs to provide training, manage digitization requests, update indexes and systems, and ensure secure handling of sealed originals.
  • For public records/access: greater privacy protections for adoptee records and reduced local public visibility of original birth certificates.

For further detail, consult the bill text (G.S. 48‑9‑107 and amendments to G.S. 130A‑99) and the enacted edition (Second Edition / conference versions) to confirm final effective dates and any technical refinements.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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