(a)

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 36-1-138

  • Adopted person: means :
    (A) Any person who is or has been adopted under this part or under the laws of any state, territory, or foreign country. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Adoption: means the social and legal process of establishing by court order, other than by paternity or legitimation proceedings or by voluntary acknowledgment of paternity, the legal relationship of parent and child. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Adoption assistance: means the federal or state programs that exist to provide financial assistance to adoptive parents to enable them to provide a permanent home to a special needs child as defined by the department. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Adoption record: means :
    (A)
    (i) The records, reports, or other documents maintained in any medium by the judge or clerk of the court, or by any other person pursuant to this part who is authorized to witness the execution of surrenders or revocations of surrenders, which records, reports, or documents relate to an adoption petition, a surrender or parental consent, a revocation of a surrender or parental consent, or which reasonably relate to other information concerning the adoption of a person, and which information in such records, reports, or documents exists during the pendency of an adoption or a termination of parental rights proceeding, or which records, reports, or documents exist subsequent to the conclusion of those proceedings, even if no order of adoption or order of dismissal is entered, but which records, reports or documents exist prior to those records, reports, or documents becoming a part of a sealed record or a sealed adoption record pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • children: means any person or persons under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Consent: means :
    (A) The written authorization to relinquish a child for adoption, which is given by an agency such as the department or a public child care agency of another state or country or licensed child-placing agency of this or another state, which agency has the authority, by court order or by surrender or by operation of law or by any combination of these, to place a child for adoption and to give permission for the adoption of that child by other persons. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Conservator: means a person or entity appointed by a court to provide partial or full supervision, protection, and assistance of the person or property, or both, of a disabled adult pursuant to title 34, chapter 1 or the equivalent law of another state. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • court: includes the juvenile court for purposes of the authority to accept the surrender or revocation of surrenders of a child and to issue any orders of reference, orders of guardianship, or other orders resulting from a surrender or revocation that it accepts and for purposes of authorizing the termination of parental rights pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Department: means the department of children's services or any of its divisions or units. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Licensed child-placing agency: means any agency operating under a license to place children for adoption issued by the department, or operating under a license from any governmental authority from any other state or territory or the District of Columbia, or any agency that operates under the authority of another country with the right to make placement of children for adoption and that has, in the department's sole determination, been authorized to place children for adoption in this state. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Licensed clinical social worker: means an individual who holds a license as an independent practitioner from the board of social worker certification and licensure pursuant to title 63, chapter 23, and, in addition, is licensed by the department to provide adoption placement services. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Lineal descendant: Direct descendant of the same ancestors.
  • Lineal descendant: means a person who descended directly from another person who is the biological or adoptive ancestor of such person, such as the daughter of the daughter's mother or granddaughter of the granddaughter's grandmother. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • parents: means any biological, legal, adoptive parent or parents or, for purposes of §. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Post-adoption record: means :
    (A) The record maintained in any medium by the department, separately from the sealed record or sealed adoption record and subsequent to the sealing of an adoption record or that is maintained about any sealed record or sealed adoption record. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Related: means grandparents or any degree of great-grandparents, aunts or uncles, or any degree of great-aunts or great-uncles, or stepparent, or cousins of the first degree, or first cousins once removed, or any siblings of the whole or half degree or any spouse of the above listed relatives. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Sealed adoption record: means :
    (i) The adoption record as it exists subsequent to its transmittal to the department, or subsequent to its sealing by the court, pursuant to the requirements of §. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Sealed record: means :
    (i) Any records, reports, or documents that are maintained at any time by a court, a court clerk, a licensed or chartered child-placing agency, licensed clinical social worker, the department, the department of health, or any other information source concerning the foster care or agency care placement, or placement for adoption, of a person by any branch of the Tennessee children's home society authorized by chapter 113 of the Public Acts of 1919. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Any necessary information in the files or the record of an adoption proceeding or in an adoption record, sealed adoption record, sealed record, post-adoption record or adoption assistance record may be disclosed pursuant to the requirements of subsection (c), to the party requiring it, upon a written, sworn motion before the court of original jurisdiction of the adoption proceeding, or, where the adoption proceeding is not yet filed, in the chancery or circuit court of the county where the record is located, or in the chancery or circuit court of any county that has a population of one hundred thousand (100,000) or greater, according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent census.
(2) Jurisdiction for motions filed pursuant to subdivision (c)(5) shall be in the chancery court for Davidson County.
(3) If the court that had original jurisdiction was a county court or is a court that no longer exists, the chancery court for the county in which such court was established shall have jurisdiction to hear the motion, in addition to the circuit or chancery courts in counties with a population of one hundred thousand (100,000) or more, as established by the 1990 federal census or any subsequent census.
(4) The department, licensed child-placing agency or licensed clinical social worker shall, upon request of the party seeking such information, disclose to the party the court in which such proceeding was filed and the docket number, if known to the department, or the licensed child-placing agency, or the licensed clinical social worker, or shall disclose the county in which the adoption record, sealed adoption record, or sealed record is located.
(b) The motion must be served upon the commissioners of children‘s services and health by certified mail, return receipt requested, or by personal service upon the commissioners or a duly designated agent of either commissioner. The hearing shall not be held sooner than fifteen (15) days after the return receipt is dated or the date of personal service. Failure to obtain service on both commissioners, or any hearing held prior to the expiration of the fifteen-day service period, shall result in the order entered in the proceeding being void and of no effect whatsoever. Each commissioner shall be permitted to file a response and may appear through counsel to respond in writing or orally, and may appeal any resulting order.
(c) The record of the adoption proceeding, the adoption record, sealed adoption record, sealed record, post-adoption record or adoption assistance record may be opened, under whatever conditions the court shall determine necessary, if the court finds, for good cause shown, that the best interests of the adopted person or of the public require such disclosure, and that one (1) or more of the following requirements are met:

(1) The movant must show that information is needed for purposes of treating or preventing a physical, psychological or psychiatric condition affecting any person, which is clearly and specifically described by testimony or affidavit of a qualified treatment professional. For purposes of this section, “qualified treatment professional” means a person licensed by any state or federal authority or the duly authorized licensing body of any other government to provide treatment for physical, psychological or psychiatric conditions;
(2) The movant must show that the information is needed for purposes of establishing legal status or standing for inheritance or for property rights determinations or for the determination of legal relationships for third parties;
(3) The movant must show that the information is necessary for the movant to prosecute or defend a legal proceeding and that alternative information sources or other means of accomplishing this end are not available;
(4) The movant is any public agency that requires the disclosure of the information in such record for purposes directly related to its authorized duties and that such information cannot be obtained by any other method, or that further delay in obtaining information that may be contained in such record may result in harm to the adopted person, the adopted person’s biological parent or parents or biological or legal relatives, or to the public;
(5) The movant is an individual who has sought disclosure under §§ 36-1-127, 36-1-133, 36-1-134 and 36-1-135, and claims to have been improperly denied access to the information so requested by the departments of children’s services or health pursuant to those sections;
(6) The movant is an individual who alleges wrongful denial of access pursuant to § 36-1-127(e)(1)(B) or (C); or
(7) The movant is a lineal descendant of a deceased adopted person or a person for whom records are maintained as described in § 36-1-127(c)(1)(A) or is the lineal descendant of such a person who is disabled as defined for purposes of appointment of a conservator under title 34.
(d) In determining whether to order disclosure of information contained in the sealed adoption record, sealed record or the post-adoption record, the court shall conduct an in camera inspection of the records and shall permit disclosure of only such information as shall be necessary to fulfill the requirements of subsection (c).
(e) The departments of children’s services or health may consent to the release of any sealed adoption records, sealed records or post-adoption records or records of birth under this section by an agreed order that is approved by the court if any of the conditions of subdivisions (c)(1) – (4) have been met or if the departments determine that they have been in error in refusing to release requested information pursuant to §§ 36-1-127, 36-1-133, 36-1-134 and 36-1-135.
(f)

(1) The court may, upon notice to the department of children’s services pursuant to subsection (b), order the department to attempt to establish contact with any person or entity for the purpose of obtaining any updated medical information necessary to assist in the treatment of the adopted person or the adopted person’s biological or legal relatives or any person who has filed a motion under this section.
(2) If the department obtains the information sought under this subsection (f), it will report this fact to the court and shall send such information directly to the qualified treatment professional who is providing care and treatment for the person who sought the information, unless the court, for good cause entered in the record, shall order otherwise.
(g) [Deleted by 2021 amendment.]
(h) This section is supplemental to the previous provisions of this part permitting access to records by eligible persons without court orders and shall not be construed to be restrictive of those provisions.
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