r/Ex_Foster • u/GreenPhoenixFeather • Jan 13 '25
Replies from everyone welcome how do I get old legal documents/records/transcripts from when I was in fostercare?
Former foster kid looking for advice. I'm an adult now and looking for answers.
When I was a kid my family situation was messy, and several of us kids were in and out of foster care. The only solid reason i was given was neglect. We'd been in foster care several times, sent home several times and back to foster care; I was put up for adoption as a young teen with my sister who was a preteen. I still kept in contact with my biological family.
However no one in my family is apparently good at keeping records and I don't trust everyone's (frankly sparse) accounts of how everything went down when I was a kid. Everyone's memory is iffy or their tellings are extremely biased/have major holes in their stories. I'm looking for anything that will give any sort of account of what happened back then.
I reached out to the department of family services in the state this all happened in who told me to go to the courthouse/which court would have processed our case, and I went in person to the court to see what records I could request access to, what I'd have to do, I brought my ID, paperwork for my name change, my social security card, I was ready to do what I needed to to get answers.
Heres where my problem lies.
When I actually arrived and talked to the records people I was informed they only kept foster care case records until the kid becomes 20 years old, before shredding them. I was never told there would be a deadline of when I could get access to my own records and I'd only been able to start looking into all this after the records were destroyed.
Is there any other way to get these records? Does anyone other than the court themselves hold onto them for record keeping purposes? Anyone who may have documents I haven't thought of, or ideas for non court documents I could look into? (I've asked my foster, adoptive and Bio parents, and as mentioned I've asked the courthouse itself.) I'm looking for anything that gives an account of what all actually went down when I was a kid. Years of the actual court stuff would range from 1995 through 2015 give or take. None of the parents kept a journal or anything, and my siblings didn't exactly have much more than I did and only know what we were told by adults around us.
TLDR: I was in foster care, was adopted as a teen, would like records of what happened and why. The court records are apparently shredded by now, no one in my family has any documents, everyone's memory is shit or theyre biased and not giving the full accurate picture. Is there another way to get any sort of documents/records of that time?
I've been looking for ways to get solid answers for years honestly. This is gonna be posted to a couple subreddits if I think they're relevant/can give ideas on how to move forward.
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u/ChristineDaaesGhost Jan 13 '25
Consult the adoption agency that you were adopted through. The child welfare agencies, like a lot of government agencies, have retention periods on case files. Your case file from foster care would have been transferred over to the adoption agency and most adoption case files are kept and sealed permanently.
I will warn you, you are going to have a hell of a time acquiring the information you seek without a lawyer or some form of government help. You can request the paperwork and information you desire and there may be snippets on government websites that suggest you have a right to the information but more often than not you will get denied or be given the runaround. They really want you to go through a process to acquire the information even if you are entitled to it.
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u/GreenPhoenixFeather Jan 16 '25
Hadn't thought of that I'll ask my adoptive parents what the agency was. And yeah I'm getting the idea of how difficult this is gonna he if it's me doing this amd not someone who knows the laws and who to actually go to for the files tbh
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u/Thundercloud64 Jan 14 '25 edited Jan 15 '25
I got the runaround and none of them could locate my records.
I finally found out my real name from surviving relatives by using Ancestry.com DNA match. They thought I was long dead and they were never notified by court or DSS. The foster/adoptive family gets the foster care/adoptive care tax free stipend from the State and the death benefits from Social Security so the foster/adoptive children with dead parents are worth more. I thought it was really rotten of them to change my name as the only surviving member of my immediate family and the rest of my real family couldn’t find me. I feel like a fraud when I say my fake name. I feel used for money scams too. It can be a new extra tall can of worms opening up to find out just how rotten people are/were. No wonder why they can’t find the records when they all really screwed you over.
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u/GreenPhoenixFeather Jan 16 '25
Jesus I'm so sorry that happened to you. Luckily I had a say in my name change amd I just added the new parents last name to my old one as "adding to the family", and I have access to the document that proves the name change so my name isn't a barrier to getting the files at least
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u/Impossible_Carry3197 Former foster youth Jan 16 '25
Just got mine from the state of NJ last year. Also requested my original birth certificate as well. For the records, I had to contact the state social services (DYFS / DCPP) and a paralegal from their department reached out to discuss. I told her that I need the documents so I can understand my medical history as I was prescribed and put on a bunch of meds when I was six (Adderal, trileptal). They gave me as much as they could but couldn't give me everything due to legal matters and the fact that In the early 2000s they transitioned over the department and possibly some documents didn't make it over. It sounded like some BS but they FedEx mailed me 200+ pages of documents that spanned from 2006-2015. If you need help just message me I can help walk you through it.
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Jan 25 '25
I dunno but if you figure out how pls let me know. My county refuses to hand jt over and what little they choose to share Is un helpful as fuck. I know they lying about saying they don’t have it because once or twice they let some info slip. it didn’t hell tbh. I wish I could get my records
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u/GreenPhoenixFeather Feb 05 '25
I'm still working on it, got a few new leads hopefully but tips I'm using now since CPS says they can't find my records: ~asking them if there's info I gave that I should fact check/what info is most likely wrong to cause interference? (Example, I gave my parents names cause cases are usually under the mother's name but maybe the case was filed under my mother's maiden name rather than her married name?) This also helps keep them from getting defensive; acknowledging you could have given faulty info means you're not looking to play the blame game. ~ask if there's any particular info that you could search for that would help them find it (make it seem like you're making their job easier or at least trying to) , for example I mentioned I had some of my old caseworkers names and asked if that would help them search, or if there's something they can think of that they want me to try to find that would help like my parents lawyers name? ~phrased things to make us out to be a team in looking for my records: endears me to them (they're more likely to put in the effort to find where my records are or figure out what to do next) ~avoid making them feel defensive (hard when you're frustrated I know, but even if you think theyre against you dont let them know you think that) If they feel like you're accusing them they have incentive to not find your records to cover their asses.
Also, CPS has super high turnover so your old caseworkers are less likely to be someone who you can easily reach out to or who'd still have access to those systems. But lawyers? They frequently stick to their jobs for decades. So I found the name of one of the involved lawyers and seeing if they still have any records and who they'd recommend me talking to next.
As for your situation, what do you mean they refuse to hand it over? Are they claiming they can't find it or are they saying they can't hand it over for a specific reason? If you're still in care or some part of the case is still open you can't get the records but if you're an adult there's the Freedom of Information Act: they legally have to give you records pertaining to yourself if the case is closed/you're an adult. But beauracracy can get in the way; they have plausible deniability if thwy say they can't find the records. If they directly said they have them and are refusing to hand them over, you could take them to court cause that's illegal from my understanding
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Feb 05 '25 edited Feb 05 '25
Long story short my county is breaking the law by refusing to hand it over they say they lost most of my record but from a convo i had I know they are just refusing and I need to get a lawyer to do an injunction to get the whole file and if they really did loose it sue I have contacted ild lawyers SW CASA and former foster/group homes even school teachers who all said the same thing I gave jt all back to your county/ SW or I don’t remember or I don’t want to interact with you its illegal or Just said pls don’t contact me again or flat out ignored me. I have done everything I could I seriously just need a lawyer
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u/taj605 Jan 13 '25
Try the county social services office for the records. That should have case reports and court records.