Legal Definitions - confidentiality statute

A confidentiality statute is a law that keeps adoption records sealed, preventing an adopted child from finding out who their biological parents are and preventing biological parents from finding out who the adoptive parents are. This law is also known as a sealed-record statute.

• In the state of Florida, adoption records are sealed and can only be accessed by court order.
• In California, adoption records were sealed until 2018 when a new law was passed allowing adoptees to access their birth certificates.

These examples show how confidentiality statutes work in different states. In Florida, adoption records are completely sealed, while in California, the law has changed to allow adoptees to access their birth certificates. However, in both cases, the biological parents' identities are kept confidential.