You will receive a letter from the office stating that they have gotten your request. When they're ready to process it, you'll receive another letter telling you to send the amount specified. The cost, as I've heard it, is at $150.00 plus $0.25 per copied page. According to the State of Tennessee's website, the Department does charge a fee to determine eligibility, and there is an additional fee for each additional record which is opened or for subsequent requests to have records opened. For an individual whose family unit currently recieves Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Food Stamps, Medicaid (TennCare), or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), no fee will be charged. The fee for service will also be waived if your income and that of your family, based upon its size, does not exceed the current Federal Poverty Guidelines. If you wish to request contact with your birth relatives, there is an additional fee of $135.00. (You can do just the $150.00 records-request if you do not desire contact).

After your money has been sent and the search for the records concluded, you have two options. You can either go to Nashville and view the record yourself and receive the copies there, or you can have the copies sent to you by certified mail. If you wish to view the record personally and you want copies to take with you, let DCS know about this when you schedule the appointment. If they don't know in advance, the copies will not be prepared and you'll still receive them by certified mail.

That's a very good question! I've heard that the state has anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 old requests to go through just to catch up! When the law passed in 1995, many people sent letters asking for their files. All of those requests have been on hold until this suit was settled. Now that it's over, they have all of that backlog to dig through, and they will be processed in the order that they were received. Some of the members of the tn-adoption@onelist.com email list came up with the idea of keeping track. I've started an informal database so that we might better estimate how long our wait will be at this site.

Not exactly. You must go through the state's registry to make contact, and you must sign an affidavit to that effect when you receive your records. For instance, let's say that as an adoptee, I request my records and then request to make contact. The state must then locate my birth relatives and ask their permission. At that time, they must inform them of the 'Contact Veto' provision of the law.

The Contact Veto gives people the opportunity to say "I do not want to be contacted by you or anyone affiliated with you in any manner." For instance, let's say the state did locate my birth relatives and one of them has filed a Contact Veto and doesn't want any sort of communication with me or any representative of me. If I violate that, I can be fined $500.00 AND imprisoned for six months under criminal law. Also, I'm open to civil litigation which could potentially cost me, quite literally, everything. The moral of the story is this: Do not violate the terms of the Contact Veto.

Yes, in addition to the Contact Veto, there is a 'Disclosure Veto.' Birth Mothers who conceived due to rape or incest can effectively block the release of all identifying information. I'll post more information on how this works as I understand it better. Also, birth relatives can only receive identiying information if the adoptee gives consent; whereas adoptees don't need expressed permission. Once a birth relative makes a request for records, the adoptee will be located and asked. If the adoptee declines, no identifying information will be released.

I haven't gotten the official word on this, but I'll make an educated guess and say no. Since your records would be sealed in another state, and the adoption itself was subject to a different state's laws - then I'd have to say that this law does not apply to you.

This site as a whole will be here for a long, long time. The registry portion may eventually shut down as the need for it tapers off. However, there are always those odd cases that red tape and paperwork don't serve - and I'll continue to assist in any way that I can for as long as is necessary.