If you were adopted in Indiana and want your records, the main route is the state’s Adoption Matching Registry, run by the Indiana State Department of Health. Adult adoptees aged 21 and older can request their original birth certificate and other identifying information from the adoption file, and the department will release it unless a birth parent has filed a contact preference form restricting access. Indiana adoption records are sealed by default, but the 2018 opening of the registry gave most adoptees a direct path that didn’t exist before.
Who Can Request Records
You can register with the Adoption Matching Registry at 18, but identifying information isn’t released until you are 21.1Indiana Department of Health. Indiana Adoption Records The registry is also open to several people beyond the adoptee:
- Adoptive parents
- Birth parents and birth siblings
- Spouses or relatives of a deceased adoptee or birth parent, with proof of the relationship
Registration matters because identifying information is released based on what each party has on file. A birth parent’s instructions sit in the system until they are changed, and an adoptee’s written consent has to be on file before any authorized entity can release identifying records, even to a birth parent who asks.2Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-19-25-2 – Requirements for Release of Identifying Information
How to Submit a Request
Requests go to the Indiana State Department of Health. You submit two forms: Form 47897, the Non-Identifying Information Consent, and Form 47896, the Identifying Information Consent. A government-issued photo ID has to come with the submission, such as a driver’s license, passport, or state ID.1Indiana Department of Health. Indiana Adoption Records
Fees are small. A birth certificate copy is $10, and an adoptive medical history search is $25.3Indiana Department of Health. Order Certificates
If no contact preference form is on file blocking release, the department will send the identifying information to you once your paperwork and ID are processed.
What a Contact Preference Form Can Do
The single most common reason a request stalls is a contact preference form filed by a birth parent. Under IC 31-19-25-4.6, a birth parent uses State Form 56535 to pick one of four options:4Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-19-25-4.6 – Contact Preference Form; Contents
- Welcome direct contact, with identifying information released.
- Intermediary contact only, through a designated third party, with no direct release of identifying information.
- No contact of any kind, with no release of identifying information.
- No contact, but open to the state registrar reaching out for updated medical information.
A contact preference form stays in effect indefinitely unless the birth parent wrote in a specific end date. The birth parent can file a new one at any time, and the most recent form replaces every earlier version. If the birth parent dies, the form lapses unless it says on its face that it should continue after death.4Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-19-25-4.6 – Contact Preference Form; Contents
Two practical points follow. A birth parent who filled out a form years ago and forgot about it may still be blocking release today. And a birth parent who once chose “no contact” can change that decision whenever they want by filing a new form.
Non-Identifying and Medical Information
Medical and non-identifying information travels on a separate track and is often available even when identifying details are off limits. Indiana established the Adoption History Program in 1988 under IC 31-19-18, which created the Indiana Adoption Medical History Registry as the central repository.1Indiana Department of Health. Indiana Adoption Records
Non-identifying information usually covers the health status and medical history of the adoptee and the birth parents, with anything that would reveal who they are stripped out. Adoption petitions filed after the program began have to include a Comprehensive Medical Report.1Indiana Department of Health. Indiana Adoption Records
Birth parents can add to or update medical history at any point by submitting the appropriate form with the Record of Adoption. For an adoptee who needs family medical history for their own health decisions, this path works regardless of whether identifying information has been restricted.
When the Registry Doesn’t Give You What You Need
If the registry route doesn’t deliver, Indiana law lets you petition the court that entered the adoption decree. Adoption files held by the Department of Child Services, local offices, and licensed child placing agencies are confidential under IC 31-19-19-2, but the court that heard the adoption can inspect them, and on the court’s order they can be introduced as evidence and made part of the record.5Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-19-19-2 – Agency Files and Records
Courts typically expect a showing of good cause or an emergency medical need, and the statute leaves them room to weigh each case on its own. If you don’t know which court finalized the adoption, the state registrar can help you identify it.
If You May Have Native American Heritage
A separate federal process applies if you were adopted and believe you may have Native American ancestry, and it is not controlled by Indiana’s contact preference forms. Under 25 U.S.C. ยง 1917, an adopted person who has reached 18 can apply to the court that entered the final adoption decree, and the court must disclose the tribal affiliation of the biological parents along with any other information needed to protect rights tied to that tribal relationship.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 25 USC 1917 – Tribal Affiliation Information and Other Information for Protection of Rights Flowing From Tribal Relationship
Even where a biological parent has asked for anonymity, the Secretary of the Interior can still certify parentage to the relevant tribe for enrollment purposes without revealing the parent’s personal identifying details.
International Adoptions Finalized in Indiana
If your adoption was finalized in Indiana after an international placement, your Indiana file follows the state rules above. Citizenship paperwork is federal and runs through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Children admitted on IR-3 or IH-3 visas should receive a Certificate of Citizenship automatically; if more than 60 days pass after entry without one, USCIS directs families to the Buffalo Field Office’s CCA Unit.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Certificate of Citizenship for Your Internationally Adopted Child
If a child’s legal name or date of birth changed after entry, typically through a state court order during finalization, Form N-565 is used to request a replacement Certificate of Citizenship with the updated information. Some fee waivers are available for adoptees filing this form.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Certificate of Citizenship for Your Internationally Adopted Child
Original birth records from the child’s country of origin follow that country’s laws and whatever the placing agency retained. Indiana cannot compel a foreign government to release documents, though the agency that handled the placement may still hold copies worth asking about.