Senate Bill No. 413–Senators Coffin and Schneider

 

March 19, 2001

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Joint Sponsors: Assemblymen Freeman
and Ohrenschall

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Referred to Committee on Judiciary

 

SUMMARY—Allows adoptee who is 18 years of age or older to access files and records of proceedings concerning his adoption and eliminates state register of adoptions. (BDR 11‑1240)

 

FISCAL NOTE:            Effect on Local Government: No.

                                    Effect on the State: No.

 

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EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted.

 

AN ACT relating to adoptions; allowing an adoptee who is 18 years of age or older to access the files and records of the proceedings concerning his adoption; eliminating the state register of adoptions; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN

SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

1-1    Section 1. NRS 127.140 is hereby amended to read as follows:

1-2    127.140  1.  All hearings held in proceedings under this chapter are

1-3  confidential and must be held in closed court, without admittance of any

1-4  person other than the petitioners, their witnesses, the director of an agency,

1-5  or their authorized representatives, attorneys and persons entitled to notice

1-6  by this chapter, except by order of the court.

1-7    2.  [The] Except as otherwise provided in subsection 3, the files and

1-8  records of the court in adoption proceedings are not open to inspection by

1-9  any person . [except upon]

1-10    3.  The files and records of the court concerning an adoption

1-11  proceeding may be inspected:

1-12    (a) By the parties to the proceeding and their attorneys.

1-13    (b) By a person who is 18 years of age or older and who was the

1-14  subject of a proceeding.

1-15    (c) Upon an order of the court expressly [so] permitting such an

1-16  inspection, pursuant to a petition setting forth the reasons [therefor or if a

2-1  natural parent and the child are eligible to receive information from the

2-2  state register of adoptions.] for the inspection.

2-3    Sec. 2.  NRS 127.007 is hereby repealed.

 

2-4  TEXT OF REPEALED SECTION

 

2-5    127.007  State register for adoptions: Establishment; contents;

2-6   release of information.

2-7    1.  The division shall maintain the state register for adoptions, which is

2-8   hereby established, in its central office to provide information to identify

2-9   adults who were adopted and persons related to them within the third

2-10   degree of consanguinity.

2-11    2.  The state register for adoptions consists of:

2-12    (a) Names and other information, which the administrator of the

2-13   division deems to be necessary for the operation of the register, relating to

2-14   persons who have released a child for adoption or have consented to the

2-15   adoption of a child, or whose parental rights have been terminated by a

2-16   court of competent jurisdiction, and who have submitted the information

2-17   voluntarily to the division;

2-18    (b) Names and other necessary information of persons who are 18 years

2-19   of age or older, who were adopted and who have submitted the

2-20   information voluntarily to the division; and

2-21    (c) Names and other necessary information of persons who are related

2-22   within the third degree of consanguinity to adopted persons, and who have

2-23   submitted the information voluntarily to the division.

2-24  Any person whose name appears in the register may withdraw it by

2-25   requesting in writing that it be withdrawn. The division shall immediately

2-26   withdraw a name upon receiving a request to do so, and may not thereafter

2-27   release any information to identify that person, including the information

2-28   that such a name was ever in the register.

2-29    3.  Except as otherwise provided in subsection 4, the division may

2-30   release information:

2-31    (a) About a person related within the third degree of consanguinity to an

2-32   adopted person; or

2-33    (b) About an adopted person to a person related within the third degree

2-34   of consanguinity,

2-35  if the names and information about both persons are contained in the

2-36   register and written consent for the release of such information is given by

2-37   the natural parent.

2-38    4.  An adopted person may, by submitting a written request to the

2-39   division, restrict the release of any information concerning himself to one

2-40   or more categories of relatives within the third degree of consanguinity.

 

2-41  H