Alaska Adoption Records: Original Birth Certificates, Sealed Court Files, and No Registry

Alaska is one of only two states, along with Kansas, that never sealed an adult adoptee's original birth certificate in the first place. Under Alaska Statutes § 18.50.500, an adopted person who is at least 18 years old can request the identity of a biological parent directly from the state registrar, and receive an uncertified copy of their own original birth certificate, without a court order and without the birth parent's consent.

That direct-access rule sits alongside a separate, and stricter, rule that keeps the underlying adoption court proceeding closed. This page covers both, along with the separate statutory channel for descriptive information about a biological parent and why Alaska does not run a reunion registry.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Can an Adult Adoptee Get an Original Birth Certificate in Alaska?

Yes, and Alaska's process is more direct than almost any other state's. AS 18.50.500 provides that after receiving a request by an adopted person 18 years of age or older for the identity of a biological parent, the state registrar shall provide the person with an uncertified copy of the person's original birth certificate.

There is no compromise mechanism layered on top of that right. Alaska does not use a redaction process, a contact-preference gate, or a disclosure veto. Subsection (c) of the same statute lets an adopted person or a birth parent separately submit updated name or address information for the state registrar to attach to the certificate, but that submission has no bearing on whether the adoptee's own request is honored. Subsection (d) is a different, narrower right: the state registrar discloses the adopted child's current name and address to a requesting biological parent, but only if the adoptee has separately asked in writing that it be disclosed if the biological parent ever requests it.

How to Request Your Original Birth Certificate

Requests go through Alaska Health Analytics & Vital Records, with offices in Juneau and Anchorage and a mailing address at P.O. Box 110675, Juneau, AK 99811-0675. The office can be reached at (907) 465-3391 (Juneau), (907) 269-0991 (Anchorage), or by email at doh.havrs.info@alaska.gov.

Alaska Health Analytics & Vital Records does not publish a dedicated order form or fee for an adult adoptee's original birth certificate. Its general vital-records ordering page lists the standard certificate products and does not break the adoption request out separately. Confirm the current form and fee directly with the office before mailing a request.

The Sealed Adoption Court Proceeding

Even though the birth certificate itself is available on request, the underlying adoption court proceeding is treated differently. AS 25.23.150 requires that all hearings held in adoption proceedings be held in closed court without admittance of any person, other than those the court permits.

The statute does set a standard for opening the record after the fact, and it is a demanding one. Court records may be inspected only with the court's own consent; records held by the department, an agency, or an individual are open only with the consent of all interested persons or by court order for good cause shown. Disclosing the identity or address of an adoptive parent, an adopted child, or a birth parent whose rights were terminated is separately prohibited unless authorized in writing by the adopted child, if 14 or older, or the adoptive parent, or ordered by a court for good cause shown. For a natural parent's identity or address specifically, the standard is stricter still: a court may order disclosure only on an express finding that it is required because of medical necessity or another extraordinary circumstance, and only after notice and a hearing to the parent, the child, and the adoptive parents, unless the court waives that notice because of an immediate risk to life.

These are legally separate tracks in Alaska. An adoptee does not need to unseal the court proceeding to get the birth certificate; the certificate comes directly from the state registrar under a different statute entirely.

Non-Identifying Information and No State Registry

Alaska does run a dedicated non-identifying-information channel, and it is separate from the birth-certificate request. AS 18.50.510 requires the state registrar, at the request of an adoptive parent or of an adopted person 18 years of age or older, to release descriptive information about a biological parent named on the original birth certificate, to the extent that information is available from the registrar's adoption records.

The statute lists what must be released: the biological parent's age on the day the adopted person was born; heritage, including national origin, ethnic background, and tribal membership; the medical history of the parent and of the parent's blood relatives; the number of years of school the parent had completed by the birth; a physical description as of that day, including height, weight, and color of hair, eyes, and skin; whether the parent had other children; whether the parent was alive at the time of the adoption; religion; and any other information the biological parent left for the child, which may include photographs, letters, and a statement explaining the reasons for the adoption.

Subsection (b) requires that release to come on a standard form prepared by the commissioner, and bars the registrar from including the biological parent's name or anything not on that statutory list. In practice this route matters most to an adoptive parent, who has no right to the certificate under AS 18.50.500, and to an adult adoptee who wants family medical history without ordering the certificate itself.

Alaska does not run a mutual-consent reunion registry or a confidential-intermediary program. That absence is consistent with Alaska's unrestricted model: because the adoptee can already obtain identifying information directly, the matching and search infrastructure that other, more restrictive states build around registries and intermediaries serves little additional purpose here.

For the national picture on how registries work in states that do run them, see adoption reunion registries. The federal Child Welfare Information Gateway also maintains a state-by-state compilation of adoption-records access rules for readers comparing Alaska against other states.

Related Alaska Records

See Alaska death records for locating a deceased birth parent's record, Alaska court records for the state's broader court-records access rules, and Alaska marriage and divorce records for tracing a name change. For the general difference between a standard and an original birth certificate, see are birth certificates public records. For search strategy once you have identifying information, see how to find birth parents.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Alaska adoption-records law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, forms, and office contact information change; verify current details with Alaska Health Analytics & Vital Records or a licensed Alaska attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation. Locating a birth relative, once identifying information is available, is not guaranteed to succeed or to lead to contact.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and forms reflect their published status as of August 2026.