S2891

An Act concerning vital statistics records and amending R.S.26:8-24.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. R.S.26:8-24 is amended to read as follows:

26:8-24. The State registrar shall:

a. Have general supervision throughout the State of the registration of vital records;

b. Have supervisory power over local registrars, deputy local registrars, alternate deputy local registrars, and subregistrars, in the enforcement of the law relative to the disposal of dead bodies and the registration of vital records;

c. Prepare, print, and supply to all registrars, upon request therefor, all blanks and forms used in registering the records required by said law, and provide for and prescribe the use of the NJ-EDRS or any successor vital reporting system. The blanks and forms supplied under this subsection, and any electronic blanks and forms that are used in the NJ-EDRS, shall require the person registering a birth or death record, at a minimum, to provide the same information as is required by the National Center for Vital Health Statistics in its standardized U.S. certificates of live birth, death, and fetal death. No blanks, forms, or methods of registration shall be used, other than those that satisfy the requirements of this subsection, and which are supplied or approved by the State registrar;

d. Carefully examine the certificates or electronic files received periodically from the local registrars or originating from their jurisdiction; and, if any are incomplete or unsatisfactory, require such further information to be supplied as may be necessary to make the record complete and satisfactory;

e. Arrange or bind, and permanently preserve the certificates of vital records, or the information comprising those records, in a systematic manner and in a form that is deemed most consistent with contemporary and developing standards of vital statistical archival record keeping;

f. Prepare and maintain a comprehensive and continuous index of all vital records registered, the index to be arranged alphabetically:

1. In the case of deaths, by the name of the decedent;

2. In the case of births, by the name of child, if given, and if not, then by the name of father or mother;

3. In the case of marriages, by the surname of the husband and also by the maiden name of the wife;

4. In the case of civil unions, by the surname of each of the parties to the civil union;

5. In the case of domestic partnerships, by the surname of each of the partners;

g. Mark the birth certificate of a missing child when notified by the Missing Persons Unit in the Department of Law and Public Safety pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1995, c.395 (C.52:17B-9.8c);

h. Develop and provide to local registrars an education and training program, which the State registrar may require each local registrar to complete as a condition of retaining that position, and which may be offered to deputy local registrars, alternate deputy local registrars and subregistrars at the discretion of the State registrar, that includes material designed to implement the NJ-EDRS and to familiarize local registrars with the statutory requirements applicable to their duties and any rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto, as deemed appropriate by the State registrar;

i. Facilitate the electronic notification, upon completion of the death record and issuance of a burial permit, of the decedent's name, Social Security number and last known address to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Department of Human Services to safeguard public benefit programs and diminish the criminal use of a decedent's name and other identifying information; [and]

j. Facilitate the provision of relevant statistical data on maternal deaths to the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, in accordance with the provisions of section 12 of P.L.2019, c.75 (C.26:6C-12); and

k. Permit, upon the request of a county surrogate on behalf of the county surrogate’s court, a county surrogate to have real-time access, and facilitate a county surrogate’s access, to the necessary vital statistics records in order for the county surrogate to conduct any necessary business with the county surrogate’s court.

(cf: P.L.2019, c.75, s.13)

2. The Commissioner of Health shall adopt rules and regulations in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C52:14B-1 et seq.) as necessary to implement the provisions of this act.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill requires the State registrar in the Department of Health to permit, upon the request of a county surrogate on behalf of the county surrogate’s court, a county surrogate to have real-time access, and to facilitate a county surrogate’s access, to the necessary vital statistics records, such as a death certificate, in order for the county surrogate to conduct any necessary business with the county surrogate’s court. Under current law, the following persons are authorized to obtain and receive a certified copy of a death certificate from a registrar: the parent, legal guardian or other legal representative of the subject of that record; the subject's spouse, child, grandchild or sibling, if of legal age, or the subject's legal representative; an agency of State or federal government for official purposes; a person possessing an order of a court of competent jurisdiction; or a person who is authorized under other emergent circumstances as determined by the commissioner.