Adoption records requests are taking months for the Indiana State Department of Health to deliver.
(Indianapolis, Ind.) – People adopted as children in Indiana are waiting months to get the adoption records they request.
In 2016, Indiana’s legislature passed a law allowing adoptees to request records from the Indiana State Department of Health. That law went into effect July 1, 2018, opening up availability to records which had been sealed between 1941 and 1993.
Indiana Public Media reports that the department of health has received more than 3,300 requests for adoption records since the law kicked in. However, the agency has fulfilled only about 860 requests.
It could take more than 20 weeks to process each request, the department said.
The agency told WFIU that staff tasked with processing the records requests are busy with other adoption-related tasks tied to legal deadlines.
RELATED STORIES: