Oregon Adoption

United States Oregon Vital Records Oregon Adoption

Types of Adoption Records

Adoption records consist of two types of information: Identifying and nonidentifying. Identifying information would allow adopted persons to locate their family of origin. Nonidentifying information would not allow an adopted person to locate their family of origin but would provide supporting data for the adoption process.

There are three sources containing adoption information:
(1) the court files in the county where the adoption took place,
(2) the pre-adoption birth certificate housed at the Vital Records office, and
(3) the case files at the adoption agency.

Pre-adoption birth certificate. The pre-adoption birth certificate is open to adoptees. That right was passed in a ballot initiative (Measure 58, 1998).

Adoption agency case files. The adoption agency case files are partially open. Adoptees can request a copy of their “Non-Identifying Information.” They can also request an “Assisted Search.” The assisted search permits an intermediary to locate the birth parents and notify them of the Mutual Consent Registry. This registry provides a matching service for adoptees and birth parents who register their consent to release identifying information.
The Department of Human Services (DHS), through the Adoption Search and Registry Program has a record of Oregon adoptions finalized since 1920.
Private adoption agencies maintain their own files.

Court files. The adoption court files were sealed in 1957 and were opened in 2014 when Senate Bill 623 was passed. The ORS is 109.319, and the wording suggests the Department of Human Services makes the request.

Oregon Adoption Law Timeline

1864. The State of Oregon enacted its first adoption law in 1864.

That Law included the provision that
“Each judge shall annually, in the month of December, make a return to the office of the secretary of state of all changes of names made in the court under this title, and the same shall be published in a tabular form with the statutes of the following year.”
That summary was published in the biennial The General Laws of the State of Oregon and made available to the general public. The practice ended with the 1919 edition. It is at this time that the view that adoption was an abnormal way of forming families became prevalent. There was also concern that a child’s illegitimacy would be attached to the child and the adoptive family and become a social stigma.

1957. ORS 7.211 was adopted, and “all records, papers and files relating to the adoption to be sealed in the record of the case and such sealed records, papers and files shall not be unsealed, opened or subject to the inspection of any person except upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction.”

1998. Oregon voters passed Measure 58, a citizen’s initiative that permitted Oregon adoptees to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate.
A group of birth mothers filed a lawsuit to seek an injunction. Marion County Judge Paul J. Lipscomb upheld Measure 58.