9.4 Records Check

Once a petitioner files for adoption, the court must immediately issue two orders:

(1) That the local sheriff or the office of state police, Louisiana Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information, conduct a records check for all federal arrests and convictions and all state arrests and convictions for each of the prospective adoptive parents. Prospective adoptive parents shall submit a set of fingerprints to the sheriff or the office of state police.

(2) That the department conduct a records check for validated complaints of child abuse or neglect in this or any other state in which either of the prospective adoptive parents has been domiciled since becoming a major, involving either prospective adoptive parent.1

These orders must be accorded priority, and the responding agency must “provide a certificate indicating all information discovered, or that no information has been found.”2

• 1La. Ch.C. art. 1243.2(A).
• 2La. Ch.C. art. 1243.2(C).