2023 New York Laws › DOM - Domestic Relations › Article 7 - Adoption › Title 2 - Adoption From an Authorized Agency › 114 - Order of Adoption.

§  114.  Order of adoption. 1. If satisfied that the best interests of
  the adoptive child will be promoted  thereby,  the  judge  or  surrogate
  shall  make  an  order  approving  the  adoption  and directing that the
  adoptive child shall thenceforth be regarded and treated in all respects
  as the child of the adoptive parents or parent. In  determining  whether
  the  best  interests  of  the  adoptive  child  will  be promoted by the
  adoption, the judge or surrogate shall give  due  consideration  to  any
  assurance by a local commissioner of social services that he or she will
  provide  necessary  support  and  maintenance  for  the  adoptive  child
  pursuant to the social services law. Such order shall contain  the  full
  name,  date  and place of birth and reference to the schedule annexed to
  the petition containing the medical history of the  child  in  the  body
  thereof  and  shall direct that the child's medical history, heritage of
  the birth parents, which shall include  nationality,  ethnic  background
  and  race;  education,  which  shall  be  the  number of years of school
  completed by the birth parents at the time of the birth and also at  the
  time  of surrender of the adoptive child; general physical appearance of
  the birth parents at the time of the birth  and  also  at  the  time  of
  surrender  of  the  adoptive  child, which shall include height, weight,
  color of hair, eyes, skin; occupation of the birth parents at  the  time
  of  the  birth  and also at the time of surrender of the adoptive child;
  health and medical history of the birth parents at the time of the birth
  and also at the time of surrender of the adoptive child,  including  all
  available  information  setting forth conditions or diseases believed to
  be hereditary, any drugs or medication taken during the pregnancy by the
  child's mother;  and  any  other  information  which  may  be  a  factor
  influencing the child's present or future health, including the talents,
  hobbies  and  special interests of the birth parents as contained in the
  petition, be furnished to the adoptive parents, the commissioner and the
  appropriate local  registrar  of  vital  statistics.  If  the  judge  or
  surrogate is also satisfied that there is no reasonable objection to the
  change  of  name  proposed,  the order shall direct that the name of the
  adoptive child be changed  to  the  name  stated  in  the  agreement  of
  adoption  and that henceforth he or she shall be known by that name. All
  such orders made by a family court judge  of  Westchester  county  since
  September  first,  nineteen hundred sixty-two, and on file in the office
  of the county clerk of such county shall be transferred to the clerk  of
  the  family  court  of such county. Such order and all the papers in the
  proceeding shall be filed in  the  office  of  the  court  granting  the
  adoption  and  the  order  shall be entered in books which shall be kept
  under seal and which shall be  indexed  by  the  name  of  the  adoptive
  parents  and  by  the  full  original  name  of  the  child. Such order,
  including orders heretofore entered, shall be subject to inspection  and
  examination  only as hereinafter provided. Notwithstanding the fact that
  adoption records shall be sealed and secret, they may be microfilmed and
  processed pursuant to an order of the court, provided  that  such  order
  provides  that the confidentiality of such records be maintained. If the
  confidentiality is violated, the person or company violating it  can  be
  found  guilty of contempt of court. The fact that the adoptive child was
  born out of wedlock shall in no case appear in such order.  The  written
  report of the investigation together with all other papers pertaining to
  the  adoption  shall  be  kept  by the judge or surrogate as a permanent
  record of his or her court and such papers must be sealed by him or  her
  and withheld from inspection. No certified copy of the order of adoption
  shall  issue  unless  authorized  by  court order, except that certified
  copies may issue to the agency or agencies in the  proceeding  prior  to
  the  sealing  of the papers. Before the record is sealed, such order may
  be granted upon written ex parte application on  good  cause  shown  and

  upon  such  conditions  as  the  court  may  impose. After the record is
  sealed, such order may  be  granted  only  upon  notice  as  hereinafter
  provided  for  disclosure or access and inspection of records. The clerk
  upon  request  of  a  person  or  agency  entitled  thereto  shall issue
  certificates of adoption which shall contain only the new  name  of  the
  child  and  the  date  and  place of birth of the child, the name of the
  adoptive parents and the date when and  court  where  the  adoption  was
  granted,  which  certificate  as to the facts recited therein shall have
  the same force and effect as a certified copy of an order  of  adoption.
  For the purposes of this subdivision, the term "commissioner" shall mean
  the  state commissioner of health and, with respect to an adoptive child
  born in the city of New York, the  commissioner  of  health  and  mental
  hygiene of the city of New York.
2.  No  person,  including the attorney for the adoptive parents shall
  disclose the surname of the child directly or indirectly to the adoptive
  parents except upon order of the  court.  No  person  shall  be  allowed
  access  to  such  sealed  records and order and any index thereof except
  upon an order of a judge or surrogate of the court in  which  the  order
  was  made  or of a justice of the supreme court. No order for disclosure
  or access and inspection shall be granted except on good cause shown and
  on due notice to the adoptive parents and to such additional persons  as
  the  court  may  direct.  Nothing  contained  herein  shall be deemed to
  require the state commissioner of health or his  designee  to  secure  a
  court  order authorizing disclosure of information contained in adoption
  or  birth  records  requested  pursuant  to  the  authority  of  section
  forty-one   hundred   thirty-eight-c   or   section   forty-one  hundred
  thirty-eight-d of the public  health  law;  upon  the  receipt  of  such
  request  for  information,  the  court  shall  transmit  the information
  authorized to be released thereunder to the state commissioner of health
  or his designee.
3. In like manner as a court of general  jurisdiction  exercises  such
  powers,  a  judge or surrogate of a court in which the order of adoption
  was made may open, vacate or set aside such order of adoption for fraud,
  newly discovered evidence or other sufficient cause.
4. Good cause for disclosure or access to  and  inspection  of  sealed
  adoption  records  and  orders  and  any  index thereof, hereinafter the
  "adoption records", under this section may  be  established  on  medical
  grounds  as  provided herein. Certification from a physician licensed to
  practice medicine in the state  of  New  York  that  relief  under  this
  subdivision  is required to address a serious physical or mental illness
  shall be prima facie evidence of good cause.  Such  certification  shall
  indentify the information required to address such illness. Except where
  there  is an immediate medical need for the information sought, in which
  case the court may grant access to the adoption records directly to  the
  petitioner,  the  court  hearing  petition  under  the subdivision shall
  appoint a guardian ad litem or other  disinterested  person,  who  shall
  have  access  to  the  adoption records for the purpose of obtaining the
  medical information sought from those records or, where the records  are
  insufficient   for  such  purpose,  through  contacting  the  biological
  parents. The guardian  or  other  disinterested  person  shall  offer  a
  biological  parent  the  option  of  disclosing  the medical information
  sought by the petitioner pursuant to this subdivision, as  well  as  the
  option  of  granting consent to examine the parent's medical records. If
  the guardian or other disinterested person appointed does not obtain the
  medical  information  sought  by  the  petitioner,  such   guardian   or
  disinterested person shall make a report of his or her efforts to obtain
  such  information  to  the  court.  Where further efforts to obtain such
  information are appropriate, the court may in its  discretion  authorize

  direct disclosure or access to and inspection of the adoption records by
  the petitioner.