California Open has initiated a call for California relinquishment papers, sometimes termed surrender papers. Our purpose is to utilize actual documents in educating lawmakers and voters to the specific language presented to mothers and fathers, who relinquished their parental rights to the state. Copies of these documents should have been provided at the time of signing. Birthparents may request them now, from the agency that assisted them with the relinquishment. These documents were often provided to adoptive parents, at the time of adoption. They may also be retrieved, by parties to the action, when access is petitioned through the courts. Cal Open intends to explore the specific terminology of the documents, as it varied from decade to decade, when Family Code was amended through the legislature. Through this activity, we can historically dispel the myth that parents were promised anonymity. Further, we will explore the dissonance found within code, specific to the California Birth Index, which was a protected public record, since 1907.

To protect the privacy of parties from the general public, Cal Open will white out legal names, preserving the content and language of the document for teaching purposes.