144.13A Fees — use of funds — electronic birth certificate system.

1. The state registrar shall charge the parent a fee of twenty dollars for the registration of a certificate of birth.

2. The state registrar shall charge the parent a separate fee established under section 144.46 for a certified copy of the certificate. The certified copy shall include all of the information included in the original certificate of birth and shall be letter-sized. The certified copy shall be mailed to the parent by the state registrar. The mailing of a certified copy of the certificate to a biological parent shall not be precluded by the execution of a release of custody under chapter 600A, and, upon request, a biological parent shall be provided with a certified copy of the certificate unless the parental rights of the biological parent are terminated.

3. a. If, during the period between May 1993 and October 2009, a parent was issued a smaller than letter-sized certified copy of the certificate of birth under this section, which did not include all of the information included in the original certificate of birth, upon request of a parent, the state registrar shall issue to the parent a single letter-sized certified copy replacement that includes all of the information provided in the original certificate of birth. A parent shall not be required to exchange the smaller certified copy for the larger certified copy replacement, but may retain the smaller certified copy.

b. Notwithstanding the amount of the fee charged under subsection 2, the state registrar shall not charge a fee for the issuance of a single letter-sized certified copy of the certificate of birth requested by a parent under this subsection.

c. This subsection shall not apply if a new certificate of birth was substituted for the original certificate of birth pursuant to section 144.24.

d. The department shall post the application form and instructions for requesting a letter-sized certified copy replacement as specified in this subsection on the department’s internet site. This paragraph is repealed June 30, 2022.

4. If the person responsible for the filing of the certificate of birth under section 144.13 is not the parent, the person is entitled to collect the fee from the parent. The fee shall be remitted to the state registrar. If the expenses of the birth are reimbursed under the medical assistance program established by chapter 249A or if the parent is indigent and unable to pay the expenses of the birth and no other means of payment is available to the parent, the registration fee and certified copy fee are waived. If the person responsible for the filing of the certificate is not the parent, the person is discharged from the duty to collect and remit the fee under this section if the person has made a good faith effort to collect the fee from the parent.

5. The fees collected by the state registrar shall be remitted to the treasurer of state for deposit in the general fund of the state.

a. Ten dollars of each registration fee is appropriated and shall be used for primary and secondary child abuse prevention programs pursuant to section 235A.1, and ten dollars of each registration fee is appropriated and shall be used for the center for congenital and inherited disorders central registry established pursuant to section 136A.6. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys appropriated in this paragraph that remain unencumbered or unobligated at the close of the fiscal year shall not revert but shall remain available for expenditure for the purposes designated until the close of the succeeding fiscal year, and shall not be transferred, used, obligated, appropriated, or otherwise encumbered except as provided in this paragraph.

b. It is the intent of the general assembly that the funds generated from the fees as established under section 144.46 for the mailing of the certified copy of the birth certificate be appropriated and used to support the distribution of the automatic birth certificate and the implementation of the electronic birth certificate system.

6. The state registrar shall provide the county registrars with access to all birth records available through the electronic birth certificate system, including all records provided in accordance with section 144.13 or section 144.14 and birth records that are prepared and delivered to parents named in an adoption decree pursuant to section 600.13, subsection 5.

85 Acts, ch 173, §1; 87 Acts, ch 233, §428; 88 Acts, ch 1158, §37; 91 Acts, ch 243, §1; 92 Acts, ch 1097, §3; 95 Acts, ch 124, §5, 26; 99 Acts, ch 96, §13; 99 Acts, ch 141, §17; 2003 Acts, ch 103, §1; 2004 Acts, ch 1031, §12; 2004 Acts, ch 1156, §1; 2004 Acts, ch 1171, §1, 2; 2005 Acts, ch 167, §45, 66; 2005 Acts, ch 175, §82, 129; 2006 Acts, ch 1155, §2, 15; 2015 Acts, ch 119, §1; 2017 Acts, ch 148, §105, 106

Referred to in §232.2, 331.611, 600A.9