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Adopted children can now request medical, contact files from Department of Health

The law is called Act 519 and it was passed last year, as birth records were previously sealed.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Starting Wednesday, Aug. 1, Arkansas residents who were adopted can access their birth records.

The law is called Act 519 and it was passed last year, as birth records were previously sealed.

The Arkansas Department of Health said over 400 children are adopted in Arkansas every year, so these records can help lots of people who have questions about their identity.

The form is already up and ready to download on the health department's website, or you can go to their headquarters.

Birth parents can also fill out a form with contact information and one medical history for children to one day reference.

However, they also have the option to sign a form opting not to be contacted. This means adoptees couldn't get the name of the parents but still can get medical information.

For adoptees, this can play a big role in finding out if certain illnesses are hereditary.

"If you go to the doctor and you have a certain thing going on with you, now you can have the birth history or the family history of what's going on. Where [previously], if adoptees had something or a certain illness, they wouldn't have the family history behind them," Branch Chief of Vital Records Nathaniel Noble said.

There is a $100 fee to apply to get the information.

The department said they have nearly 65,000 adoption records and that a lot of time and effort went into getting this accomplished.

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