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The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will prepare and issue the child’s new birth certificate.  

Vital Records, Birth Unit 
4300 Cherry Creek Drive 
South Denver, Colorado 80246-1530 
(303) 692-2200 
Link to Website: https://cdphe.colorado.gov/vitalrecords 

Steps to a new birth certificate

Step 1 

Complete a Report of Adoption Form found on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website or by clicking on this link: https://cdphe.colorado.gov/adoption-information A report of Adoption must be completed for each child that has been adopted. Fill it out very carefully! This form will be used to create the new birth certificate. A form with cross outs and white out over mistakes will not be accepted. 

Step 2 

Submit the original Report of Adoption Form and 2 additional copies to the court on the date of the adoption hearing. The court will certify the Report of Adoption and send it along with a certified copy of the Final Decree to the Colorado Vital Records Division. 

Step 3 

Vital Records Division will process a new birth certificate. The Vital Records Division will contact you within 4-6 weeks of the hearing and ask the adoptive parents to:

• Complete a Vital Records application
• Provide photo identification of the adopting parents
• Pay a processing and a birth certificate fee

• When a child is adopted, this ends all of the birth parents' rights and responsibilities. A birth parent cannot just reappear one day and try to reclaim the child.
• Guardianship does not sever the rights and responsibilities of the birth parents, but means that a caregiver is responsible for the care and custody of the child.
• Legal custody is different than guardianship in that it may be easier to receive government services from the state if you are a guardian rather than a legal custodian.