De-identified copies of your child’s adoption record
Fee: $80.00
Texas state law allows adoptive parents and adult adoptees (18 and over) to obtain a copy of the adopted person’s file which has been edited to protect the confidentiality of birth families. The amount of information in records varies, but usually includes information on the adopted person’s birth, medical and social information regarding the birth families, and circumstances surrounding the adoption. If anyone from the birth family has been in contact with Buckner, subsequent to the relinquishment, that information will be included. If the file has been updated, all non-identifying updated information will be contained in the file copy as well.
Upon receipt of the File Request Form, copies of two forms of identification and the $80.00 fee, the file will be retrieved from storage. The post adoption counselor will de-identify the record and make a photocopy of it.
Records are prepared in the order requests are received. Because of the large number of requests and limited staff, please allow two to three months from the time of your request to the receipt of your file.
Post-adoption Counseling
Fee: $75.00 per hour
Some adoptive parents may feel the need to counsel with a Buckner social worker for help in talking with their child about adoption, or for assistance in dealing with difficult issues in the child’s background. Buckner provides time limited counseling related to these and other adoption issues. Occasionally adopted children may feel the need for counseling related to feelings of loss and/or abandonment. Adoptees may also feel the need for counseling during adolescence, to help them sort out their feelings about being adopted or to process issues related to their developing identity.
Search to Obtain Current Medical Information
You may request that Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services (Buckner) facilitate an active search for your child’s birthmother if you are interested in opening communication with the birth family, or if you are seeking current medical information.
Search to Open a Closed Adoption.
Fee: $375.00 *
Prior to facilitating a search, Buckner would require:
• One-hour post adoption conference.
• Notarized Waiver of Confidentiality & Release of Liability (signed AFTER counseling and before contacting your child’s birthmother).
• Update and non-identifying letter for your child’s birthmother.
*Most searches can be completed for the flat fee of $375.00. The fee covers the cost of actual record searches, private investigator’s fees, and retrieval of public documents, such as marriage records, birth & death records, etc.
The flat fee covers the worker’s time (which would include time spent on letters, record requests, and telephone contacts with the searcher as well as outside contacts) up to a total of 6 hours. Should the fee of $375.00 be used up before a search is completed, the Buckner worker would contact the searching party to determine if they wish to pursue the search any further. Any continuance of the search would require a deposit of $100.00, against which services could be drawn. The worker’s time would then be billed at the rate of $65.00 per hour.
Determination of Search:
Once contact has been made with the found party, the Buckner counselor will apprise the found party of the following options available to them:
a)A direct exchange of identifying information by both parties, so that direct communication can occur. (This would require that the found party be willing to participate in the hour post-adoption conference and sign a Waiver of Confidentiality & Release of Liability, as was required of the searcher)
b)Exchanges of non-identifying correspondence through Buckner for those who are not ready for direct communication. The Exchange Guidelines for Confidential Adoptions would need to be utilized and the cost incurred would be drawn from the searcher’s fees.
c)For the found party who may not want contact, we will attempt to determine why they feel contact is not possible at this time. We will also ask if they would be willing to complete an update with medical information and perhaps write the searching party a letter with an explanation as to why contact is not possible at this time. Buckner will make every attempt to facilitate contact of one form or another between parties. In the instances when life circumstances prohibit the found party from participating in correspondence or a relationship, Buckner must respect the found party’s decision. No identifying information obtained in the search can be released to the searching party.
A search will be terminated when:
• A contact has been made and determination completed, or
• The original $375.00 fee has been used and the searching individual does not wish to apply additional funds towards continuing the search, or
• There are no additional avenues that Buckner can legally pursue in search of the party.
When your child turns 18, he/ she may participate in the Buckner Mutual Consent Adoption Registry, or may request any of the above services for himself /herself.
Print out and return the following PDF forms: (.pdf)
• Service request- Adoptive Parent
• Services information
• Adoption Services for Adoptive Parents
Please make checks payable to Buckner Adoption and Maternity. Return the forms necessary for the services you are requesting, your verification of identity and your payment to:
Carol L. Demuth
Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services
5200 S. Buckner Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75227
