HB 818 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Birth Certificates for Persons Adopted.

House Bill 818 aims to standardize access to new birth certificates for adopted individuals, making the process similar to those who are not adopted. It directs the State Registrar to prepare a new birth certificate for adoptees that lists their adoptive parents and contains no reference to the adoption itself. The bill specifies that certified copies of these new birth certificates can be provided to the adoptee, their children, adoptive parents, and other immediate adoptive family members. It also ensures original birth certificates and adoption records remain sealed, while counties receive copies of the new certificate to replace the original. This act is intended to apply to new birth certificates for persons adopted before, on, or after October 1, 2025.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Apr 2025

Committee Review

May 2025

House Passage

May 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Apr 7, 2025 Last action May 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Edition 1 → Edition 2 · 6 edits

MODERATE

This bill revision expands access to birth certificates for adopted individuals by adding new subsections that clarify who can request copies and how county registers of deeds must handle these records. The changes introduce specific training requirements for county staff, establish a fee waiver for certain requests, and add protections to keep adoptee birth certificates separate from public inspection. These updates aim to improve privacy and standardize procedures across North Carolina counties.

Scope change

The bill now explicitly covers adult stepchild adoptions in addition to minor adoptions, and clarifies that county registers of deeds cannot add adoptee birth certificates to their public indexes or files.

REQUIREMENT

New subsections (d1), (d2), (f), (g), (h), and (i) establish specific procedures for how county registers of deeds must handle adoptee birth certificates, including digitization requirements and access restrictions.

Mandatory training requirements added for county register of deeds staff, with initial training due by January 30, 2026 and annual training thereafter.

FISCAL

Fee waiver provision added that prohibits charging fees to county registers of deeds who issue adoptee birth certificates for people born in their county.

ENFORCEMENT

New restrictions added preventing registers of deeds from adding adoptee birth certificates to public indexes and prohibiting public inspection of these records under existing privacy laws.

SCOPE

Section 1 renumbered to 1.1 and new Section 1.2 and 1.3 added to establish specific training deadlines for county staff implementation.

TECHNICAL

Removed original sponsor information and referral committee details from the header section.

Floor votes · House May 7, 2025

How they voted

114–0

Passed · 7 other

Total votes 121

May 7, 2025

D Democratic46

42 Yea 4

91% Yea

I Independent2

2 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican73

70 Yea 3

95% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 8, 2025

Committee

Ref To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate

upper

May 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Passed 3rd Reading

lower

May 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav

lower

May 6, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

May 6, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On State and Local Government

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Substitute

lower

Apr 9, 2025

Committee

Ref to the Com on Judiciary 2, if favorable, State and Local Government, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Apr 7, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

2 primary · 12 co-sponsors