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Read. Follow. Verify.North Carolina updates rules for issuing new birth certificates and sealing records after adoptions
Last action · May 8, 2025: Ref To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate (Senate action)Sponsors: Neal Jackson and 13 others
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What This Bill Would Do
North Carolina requires the to prepare a new birth certificate for adopted persons that excludes any reference to the adoption, sealing the original records, effective October 1, 2025. The measure permits the State Registrar and county registers of deeds to provide certified typed copies of the new birth certificate to specific family members. It also instructs the State Registrar to direct county officials to remove old birth certificates and delete related index entries.
Adopted individuals and their immediate family members gain explicit statutory access to certified typed copies or abstracts of their updated birth certificates, while original adoption records remain sealed under the control of the .
- House Bill 818 was introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly during the 2025-2026 session. context
- The North Carolina State Registrar manages vital statistics and records for the state, including birth certificates and adoptions. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Adoptees
Adoptees receive a new birth certificate containing adoptive details without adoption references and gain the ability to obtain certified typed copies of the updated certificate.
Adoptive Parents
Adoptive parents are listed on the new birth certificate and are explicitly authorized to receive certified typed copies or abstracts of the new certificate.
State Registrar
The State Registrar is required to prepare new birth certificates, seal original adoption records, and notify local officials to remove and forward old certificates.
County Registers of Deeds
County registers of deeds must remove birth certificates and delete all associated index entries upon notification by the State Registrar.
Key Facts
- The State Registrar must prepare a new birth certificate for an adoptee containing the full adoptive name, sex, state of birth, date of birth, and names of adoptive parents, with no reference to the adoption.
- In a stepparent adoption, the adoptive parent and the unchanged parent are listed as mother and father unless a joint request to keep names unchanged is filed with the court prior to the adoption decree.
- The State Registrar must seal the original birth certificate and all related records, ensuring they are not unsealed except as provided by Article 9 of Chapter 48.
- The State Registrar and county registers of deeds may provide certified typed copies or abstracts of the new birth certificate to the adoptee, the adoptee's children, adoptive parents, spouse, brothers, and sisters.
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- Upon preparing a new birth certificate, the State Registrar must notify local health department or register of deeds officials in the county of birth to remove the old birth certificate and forward it for retention under seal.
- Registers of deeds must delete all index entries for the removed birth certificate upon notification by the State Registrar.
- The act becomes effective on October 1, 2025, and applies to new birth certificates of persons adopted before, on, or after that date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible to receive certified typed copies of an adoptee's new birth certificate?
What happens to the original birth certificate and adoption records?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently passed chamber. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Law.
Procedural history
16 actions- May 8, 2025SenateRef To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate
- May 8, 2025SenatePassed 1st Reading
- May 8, 2025SenateSpecial Message Received From House
- May 8, 2025HouseSpecial Message Sent To Senate
- May 7, 2025HousePassed 3rd Reading
- May 7, 2025HousePassed 2nd Reading
Show 10 earlier actions
- May 7, 2025HouseAdded to Calendar
- May 7, 2025HouseCal Pursuant Rule 36(b)
- May 7, 2025HouseReptd Fav
- May 6, 2025HouseRe-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- May 6, 2025HouseReptd Fav
- Apr 29, 2025HouseRe-ref Com On State and Local Government
- Apr 29, 2025HouseReptd Fav Com Substitute
- Apr 9, 2025HouseRef to the Com on Judiciary 2, if favorable, State and Local Government, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Apr 9, 2025HousePassed 1st Reading
- Apr 7, 2025HouseIntroducedFiled
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Voting Record
Second Reading
Total
115
- Yes
- 109
- No
- 0
- Present
- 0
- Not voting
- 6
- Abstain
- 0
How they voted (115)
91 more members
Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Show 9 more sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Alignment of Adoption Record Access
The legislation modifies North Carolina General Statutes to align access to new birth certificates for adopted persons closer to that of non-adopted persons while maintaining sealed original records.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.ncleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance60How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy15Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz20Current news / social attention level
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