dss meeting

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009

By Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury Post
New state laws that went into effect Jan. 1 allow the Rowan County Department of Social Services to connect adoptees over the age of 21 with their birth parents and vice versa, provided all parties are willing.
Frances Gallimore, adoptions supervisor for the department, reviewed the laws for the Rowan Board of Social Services Tuesday night.
“I’m real excited about this,” she said. “It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
Before the new laws, Gallimore said, an average of two to three adoptees called the department monthly seeking information about their birth parents. Most of them have been people in their 40s and 50s who were facing health challenges and wanted information about their family health history.
Prior to this year, she said, the department could only share non-identifying health information. Now, Gallimore said, county social services departments are allowed to connect adult adoptees with their birth parents and birth parents with their adult biological children through confidential intermediary services if all parties agree to it.
The new laws give each county the responsibility of developing a policy on connecting adoptees and birth parents, as well as setting fees for the services.
Gallimore presented a proposed policy to the board setting the initial fee for the confidential intermediary services at $250 for five hours and 30 minutes of direct search, contact, facilitation and report of information. Applicants requesting additional services for an extended search will be charged $45 an hour, according to the policy, which the board approved by a 4-0 vote.
Jim Sides, who represents the Rowan County Board of Commissioners on the board, was absent due to a conflicting commissioners meeting.
In developing the policy, Gallimore said she and her staff did a test search for a 50-year-old adoptee seeking the identity of his birth parents. Both of his adoptive parents died about 10 years ago, she said.
Adoptions completed 50 years ago included the birth date of birth parents, she said, but not their Social Security numbers, which make the searches easier. However, because the man’s adoption had taken place in Daytona Beach, Fla., Gallimore said, she and her staff were able to locate the landlord of the birth mother, who told them she had moved back to South Carolina immediately after giving birth.
It took about 10 hours, but she said they were able to trace the man’s birth mother, who is now 76, to Wilmington. “The Internet is a wonderful thing,” she said.
However, when a staff member called and told her that her biological child wanted to connect with her, the woman denied having any children. “But we know it was her,” Gallimore said.
The laws allow social services departments to make one telephone call to birth parents and adoptees, along with one certified letter. If the contacted party does not want to connect with biological children or parents, the departments are not allowed to release any information to the person seeking the information, other than the non-identifying medical history.
As far as the test case, Gallimore said the department has not yet sent a certified letter to the birth mother. Information about the birth father was not included on the adoption papers.
This case took longer than most would, she said, because the search involved several states.
Gallimore said the department had received 10 inquiries since the new laws went into effect. Nine were adoptees between the ages of 30 and 50, she said, and one was a birth parent seeking a child given up for adoption.
Infants and children adopted today are given a “life book” containing the medical history of their birth parents. “It’s not going to be as big a problem as it has been for these older people,” Gallimore said.
One of the requirements of the laws, she said, is that the actual adoptees have to apply for the confidential intermediary services. In the case of male adoptees, the wives usually make the calls.
When the staff tells them the adoptee has to request the service, Gallimore said, they’ll say, “Well, he’s scared to call you.”
Gallimore said the department is able to access adoption records back to the 1930s.
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Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.