On January 1, 2009, adoptees born in Maine and at least 18 years old, will have access to their original birth certificates. For birth parents who don’t want contact, the law included a contact preference. They may file a form which must contain one of the following statements:

• A. “I would like to be contacted. I have completed this contact preference form and a medical history form and am filing them with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.”
• B. “I would prefer to be contacted only through an intermediary. I have completed this contact preference form and a medical history form and am filing them with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.”
• C. “Do not contact me. I may change this preference by filling out another contact preference form. I have completed this contact preference form and a medical history form and am filing them with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.”

For more information on this law, see:

“An Act To Provide Adult Adoptees Access to Their Original Birth Certificates”

With the passage of this legislation, six states allow access to original birth certificates. Those states are:

Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire and Oregon

What do you think about open records?

Take the poll.

In this case, the word is “child” when the word that should have been used is “infant”. Nebraska’s save haven law went into effect on July 18, 2008 and prohibits “prosecution for leaving a child at a hospital”. The problem is that “child” means up to 18 years old. Parents, and I use that term loosely, took advantage of that loophole.

The first use of Nebraska’s law was on September 13, when an 11 year old and a 15 year old were left. In one instance, a 16 year old girl from Arizona was left, in another; a father dropped off nine children, ranging in age from 1 year old to 17.

Of the 34 children left under the safe haven law, the majority are between ll and 17 years old. This is the break down by age as of November 14.

• 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years of age — 1 child each age
• 11 years old — 5
• 12 years old — 3
• 13 years old — 3
• 14 years old — 3
• 15 years old — 6
• 16 years old — 2
• 17 years old — 6

Nebraska governor, Dave Heineman has called for a special session to update the law. “This law needs to be changed to focus on its original intent, which is to protect infants,” he said.

One proposed amendment would protect infants up to three days old, another limits the age to a year or younger.

Let’s hope this mess is rectified as soon as possible. One has to wonder what kind of life these kids have had, and maybe they would be better off with a new family.

There’s an expression that I have heard many times which I now fully understand: “an old alley cat would make a better mother than . . .”

Source: Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services

Since 1990, November has been proclaimed National Adoption Month in an effort to call attention to the need for adoptive families for children in foster care. Month-long activities celebrate adoption as a positive way to build families.

The United States has approximately 510,000 children currently in foster care. Of those, 129,000 are waiting for a permanent family. Many will reach 18 without being adopted. (More than 26,000)*.

Maricopa County will celebrate with the adoption finalization of 226 children on Saturday, November 15. Celebrations are also planned for Prescott and Tucson.

*Statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children

I just finished participating in the training for Confidential Intermediaries at the Arizona Supreme Court. The certification and licensing division holds training each November for those who want to become CIs in Arizona. This year the class was larger than in the past couple of years. Seventeen trainees–all are eager to begin helping others. Some already do that in other capacities. One person is a hospice nurse, another a CASA volunteer, and one individual spent 20 years on an adoption search. Many are triad members themselves.

As usual, they fretted over the test for certification, but if past statistics are any indication, most of them will pass the test.

Jill Ekstrom made her living finding birthparents and adoptees. In March 2008, she was accused of stealing microfilmed adoption records from a clerk’s office of the Davis County court in Utah. She pleaded no contest to five counts of stealing records–a class A misdemeanor.

She maintains her innocence and says she accepted the plea deal because of the effects on her family and health. She was sentenced to $850.00 in restitution, a $540.00 fine and 18 months’ probation.

Per House Bill 2210 signed by the Governor in June, effective September 26, 2008, fees associated with filing and record searching will substantially increase for all superior and justice courts in the State of Arizona. The superior court fee for “research in locating a document (per year or source researched)” will increase from $18 to $26. The copy fee remains the same at $.50 per copy at all courts.

I ran across this blog the other day and was pleasantly surprised. Spencer Evans has taken the time to write about Arizona’s Confidential Intermediary Program. Mr. Evans is an Arizona attorney whose legal services are focused in the areas of trusts and estates, business law and adoptions. Visit his website for more information.

Thanks for helping to increase awareness of the program and the services offered by confidential intermediaries.

So many people are not aware that this program is in existence, much less recognize the hard work and dedication of Arizona’s CIs.

The IRS has announced an increase in the standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008. The new rate for business miles is 58.5 for the period from 1 July 2008 through 31 December 2008.

The previous rate of 50.5 cents per mile should be used for mileage driven from 1 January 2008 through 30 June 2008.

Here’s a link to the IRS website for additional information.

For all you Arizona CIs, here is an interesting article published by AAA calculating the costs to drive your car. If you are driving a medium-sized sedan 15,000 miles per year, the cost to drive that vehicle is 55.2 cents, according to the AAA report.

AAA has been publishing this report since 1950, when it the annual cost of driving 10,000 miles annually was 9 cents per mile. But, hey, gasoline was selling for 27 cents per gallon.

Read the 2008 edition of “Your Driving Costs“.

By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News

Published: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 12:26 a.m. MDT

FARMINGTON — An Ogden woman who has apparently made a career of finding and reuniting adopted children with their birth parents now stands accused of pilfering hundreds of sealed adoption records from the 2nd District Courthouse. Davis County prosecutors have charged Jill Ekstrom with 21 counts of altering public records, a class A misdemeanor. Originally, Ekstrom, 43, was charged with one count of second-degree felony theft, but prosecutors later amended the charges.

“How do I put a value on somebody’s privacy?” deputy Davis County attorney Rick Westmoreland said Tuesday. “There’s a reason those records are sealed.”

Read the rest of the story here

From The Norman Transcript

Court rules cut off online access to records

RON JENKINS
Associated Press

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has adopted rules cutting off public access to court records now available on the Internet.

When the rules go into effect on June 10, online access to court documents in the Supreme Court and district courts would be limited to court dockets only.

The full story:  The Norman Transcript