In this blog, my blogging partner and I talk about many ways to search. With a few exceptions, most states have provisions to provide non-identifying information to searchers. Many states also have registries and confidential intermediary systems, and a few other resources.
Sometimes I wonder if people ever read about all the ways to search and find birth family members and think the system that we have now is sufficient. Just in case, I would like to clarify that point.
First, each state varies a great deal as to what records are accessible. Where an adopted person is adopted dramatically affects their ability to obtain their original birth certificate or other adoption records. Laws vary drastically from state to state and there is little consistency or uniformity.
Second, many of the current systems in place to help people search and reunite are woefully inadequate. With the exception of a few large international registries including reunite.com, issr.org most registries have abysmal percentages of matches.
Most state run registries are inadequate chiefly for two reasons. They are not well-funded and consequently are understaffed. The other issue with state run registries is that most are so invisible that few people know to even try them.
In some states that have the confidential intermediary (CI)system, many reunions do happen. Some state allow large agencies to use confidential intermediaries for searches. Many adoptees have told me that the wait to even get their searches underway is often a year, and the searches proceed even when they are in progress. Most confidential intermediaries are honest, hard-working individuals.
However, some few CIs have been known to tell adoptees that they have contacted birth parents when they really have not. Adoptees are at the mercy of CIs in states where records are nearly impossible to access. Once a CI determines that a birth parent refuses contact, the adoptee’s file is closed, and they receive no information from the file.
Third, the costs of a search can be quite high. If an adoptee or birth parent uses the CI system, the costs can be too high for many to afford. One of the largest agencies charges $500 for a search and another $150 or so for non-identifying information. If a private detective is required to conduct a search, the costs can run as much as thousands of dollars.
I could go on and on about the inadequacies of our current procedures in place to access adoption records (You know I could!) However, my point is the myriad of ways to access records or search that we currently have are inadequate, inequitable and ineffective.