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Texas Family Code - Section 162.414. Matching Procedures

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Family Code > Texas Family Code - Section 162.414. Matching Procedures

§ 162.414. MATCHING PROCEDURES.  (a) The administrator 
shall process each registration in an attempt to match the adoptee 
and the adoptee's birth parents or the adoptee and the adoptee's 
biological siblings.
	(b)  The administrator shall determine that there is a match 
if the adult adoptee and the birth mother or the birth father have 
registered or if a biological sibling has registered.
	(c)  To establish or corroborate a match, the administrator 
shall request confirmation of a possible match from the bureau.  If 
the agency operating the registry has in its own records sufficient 
information through which the match may be confirmed, the 
administrator may, but is not required to, request confirmation 
from the bureau.  The bureau may confirm or deny the match without 
breaching the duty of confidentiality to the adoptee, adoptive 
parents, birth parents, or biological siblings and without a court 
order.
	(d)  To establish a match, the administrator may also request 
confirmation of a possible match from the agency, if any, that has 
possession of records concerning the adoption of an adoptee or from 
the court that granted the adoption, the hospital where the adoptee 
or any biological sibling was born, the physician who delivered the 
adoptee or biological sibling, or any other person who has 
knowledge of the relevant facts.  The agency, court, hospital, 
physician, or person with knowledge may confirm or deny the match 
without breaching any duty of confidentiality to the adoptee, 
adoptive parents, birth parents, or biological siblings.
	(e)  If a match is denied by a source contacted under 
Subsection (d), the administrator shall make a full and complete 
investigation into the reliability of the denial.  If the match is 
corroborated by other reliable sources and the administrator is 
satisfied that the denial is erroneous, the administrator may make 
disclosures but shall report to the adoptee, birth parents, and 
biological siblings involved that the match was not confirmed by 
all information sources.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 20, § 1, eff. April 20, 1995.  
Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 968, § 8, eff. Sept. 1, 
1995;  Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 561, § 25, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.

Last modified: August 10, 2007