                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COMMISSIONER AUTHORITY TO STORE, PRESERVE, AND CERTIFY ADOPTION FILES (§
63.2-1246.1)

Upon receipt of all orders from the clerk of the circuit court and adoption
files from the child-placing agency or local board, the Commissioner shall have
the authority to direct the storage and preservation of such records. The
Commissioner shall have custody of and retain all adoption files, whether in
paper or electronic form, including reports, orders, and other documents with
identifying information of birth parents and adoptees, in his office or at
another location designated by the Commissioner.
		The Commissioner or his designee may direct adoption files, in whole or in
part, to be microfilmed, digitally reproduced, copied, photographed, or
otherwise duplicated for the purpose of preserving and retaining such files. The
Commissioner may allow adoption files to be taken from his office or other
designated location for the purpose of being microfilmed, digitally reproduced,
copied, photographed, or otherwise duplicated, but shall take all necessary and
proper precautions, by requiring bonds or otherwise, to ensure the preservation
and return and to prevent the mutilation thereof. The Commissioner or his
designee shall examine and compare the reproductions from the microfilm,
digitally reproduced, copied, photographed, or otherwise duplicated records with
the originals and, if satisfied that the copies are exact, certify them as true
copies of the records retained by the Commissioner. The same faith and credit
shall be given to such reproductions from the microfilm, digitally reproduced,
copied, photographed, or otherwise duplicated record as the record reproduced
would have been entitled to.

HISTORY: 2018, c. 10.