To access sealed Arizona adoption records, you choose among four paths depending on what you actually need: request non-identifying health and background information from the placing agency, hire a confidential intermediary to search the sealed files and attempt contact, request your original birth certificate from the Arizona Department of Health Services, or petition the Superior Court to unseal the full record. Arizona seals every adoption file at finalization under ARS 8-120, but the same statute and several others open specific channels for adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 8-120 – Records Inspection Exception Destruction or Transfer of Certain Records
Which path fits depends on two things: what category of information you want, and who you are in relation to the adoption. Non-identifying information covers medical history, ethnic background, and general social details about the birth family. Identifying information means names, dates, and locations that could lead to direct contact. The paths below are ordered from easiest to hardest.
Request Non-Identifying Health and Background Information
This is the simplest route and requires no court involvement. ARS 8-129 requires a detailed health and genetic history to be compiled for every Arizona adoption, covering the birth parents and extended birth family. The document is kept separate from identifying records and preserved for 99 years after the adoption.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 8-129 – Health and Genetic History Compilation Availability Costs
You can request it if you are an adult adoptee (18 or older), an adoptive parent (or the adoptee’s guardian if the adoptive parents have died), or a birth parent or other biological child of the birth parent.
Contact the agency that handled the placement. If the state handled the adoption, contact the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS). Submit a written request. What comes back includes medical conditions, cause of death for deceased relatives, ethnic background, education level, and general physical descriptions. No names, no addresses, nothing that identifies anyone.
Use the Confidential Intermediary Program
When you want to find and potentially contact a birth relative, the Confidential Intermediary (CI) program is Arizona’s main tool. A CI is a professional certified by the Arizona Supreme Court and authorized to inspect sealed adoption records held by courts, DCS, agencies, and maternity homes.3Arizona Judicial Branch. Confidential Intermediary Program
Eligibility under ARS 8-134 reaches beyond the immediate adoption triad. Adult adoptees qualify, as do adoptive parents of an adult adoptee, either birth parent, biological grandparents and other extended biological family, adult biological siblings, and in cases involving a deceased adoptee, the spouse (if that spouse is the legal parent or guardian of the adoptee’s child) and adult children.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 8-134 – Confidential Intermediary
Here is what the CI actually does. The intermediary searches sealed records to locate the person you are looking for, then reaches out to that person confidentially. The CI cannot share identifying information or arrange direct contact unless both parties give written consent. If the person has died, or if the birth mother never identified the birth father, the CI tells you that directly.
If a diligent search comes up empty, the CI writes a report documenting what was done and files it with the record. You can then petition the court to release identifying information, and the judge weighs the CI’s report in deciding whether to grant it. This is one of the few scenarios where identifying details can be released without mutual consent.
On cost: the statute requires the requester to pay the actual and reasonable costs incurred by the agency, court, or DCS in providing the information, plus the intermediary’s own fees. Fees vary by CI and by how complex the search turns out to be, so ask for an estimate up front.
Request Your Original Birth Certificate
Your original birth certificate is a separate document from the sealed court file, and it lives with the Arizona Department of Health Services, Office of Vital Records. Access depends entirely on when you were born.
If You Were Born Before June 20, 1968 or On or After September 29, 2021
You can request a copy of your original birth certificate directly from the state registrar without a court order. You must be at least 18, born in Arizona, and submit a written request. The copy will be marked non-certified and cannot be used for legal purposes like a passport or driver’s license. Standard vital records fees apply.5Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 36-340 – Adopted Individual Sealed Original Birth Certificate Contact Preference and Medical History Forms Confidentiality
If You Were Born Between June 20, 1968 and September 28, 2021
The state registrar is prohibited from releasing your original birth certificate. You will need a court order to get it. This gap covers more than five decades of Arizona births and is the single biggest obstacle for adult adoptees seeking their own records.
Contact Preference and Medical History Forms
When your original birth certificate is released, it may come with additional documents. Arizona law lets birth parents voluntarily file a contact preference form stating whether they want direct contact, contact through an intermediary, or no contact. A birth parent may also file a separate sealed medical history form. Both are released alongside the certificate if they exist, but filing is optional, so many files contain neither.
Petition the Superior Court to Open the Full File
Getting the complete sealed court record, with all identifying information, requires a formal petition to the Superior Court. This is the hardest path. The default under Arizona law is that records stay sealed.
Under ARS 8-120(B), a court may order records opened for a person who has a “legitimate interest in the case” or a “legitimate interest in the protection, welfare or treatment of the child.” What qualifies is up to the judge. The strongest cases involve urgent medical situations where the non-identifying health history is too vague to guide treatment. General curiosity about one’s origins, however understandable, rarely clears the bar. If the petition is granted, the order will spell out exactly what gets released and under what conditions.
Try the CI program first. Judges are more receptive to a petition filed after a confidential intermediary has already done a thorough search and documented the result, particularly when the CI could not locate the person or could not obtain consent.
If the Placing Agency Has Closed
Your records still exist. Arizona law requires any closing adoption agency to transfer its adoption documents to DCS or to another licensed Arizona adoption agency, to notify DCS of the transfer, and to inform the affected adoptive parents. If you cannot find your records, start with DCS; they should be able to point you to where the files were sent. Court records from the adoption itself stay with the Superior Court that finalized it, regardless of what happened to the agency.
Looking for a Sibling Separated by Foster Care, Not Adoption
If you were separated from a sibling through a dependency action rather than an adoption, the Sibling Information Exchange (SIX) program under ARS 8-543 is the right tool rather than the adoption CI process. It uses the same confidential intermediary infrastructure but serves former dependent children and their siblings. Adults who were formerly dependent children, adult siblings of former dependent children, and minors acting through an adoptive parent, guardian, or biological parent with legal custody can participate. A former dependent child who does not want to be contacted can file an affidavit blocking contact, and the CI must honor it unless the person later withdraws it in writing.6Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 8-543 – Sibling Information Exchange Program Definition