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Vigo County to begin issuing out-of-county vital records; board discusses fee changes and gender-change policy
Summary
Vital records staff said the county can now issue birth and death records from other Indiana counties and discussed adopting county-of-origin fees; the board was told gender changes to birth records now require state action or court order and the county will pursue a formal open-session vote to adopt county-by-county fees.
Vigo County vital records staff reported they can now issue birth and death certificates from other Indiana counties and asked the board to consider adopting a policy to charge nonresident fees that match the county of birth registration.
Miranda from Vitals said the office can now issue records from other counties and showed what the new Vigo County birth record would look like alongside an example from Marion County. She said the Vital Records application form will be revised to change the field label from “birthplace” to “county of birthplace in Indiana” so staff can identify where the record was registered.
Staff and board members discussed local fees: Miranda and other staff said Vigo County’s current fees are relatively low and that an influx of out-of-county requests is likely. Miranda said she will talk to county staff about raising fees and suggested posting a table of other counties’ fees for transparency. Board members asked whether adopting county-by-county fee language would require an open-session vote; staff replied it would and suggested umbrella language that adopts charging the fee listed in the county where the birth certificate was registered.
On gender changes to birth records, Miranda said state policy has shifted and the county is no longer allowed to process gender changes locally; she said she had sent one request to the state and had not yet received a response. “So if they give them permission to move forward, then we would have to alter the record,” Miranda said. She noted Monroe County will continue to issue changes if there is a court order and that the county would follow a court order if provided.
Why it matters: Issuing out-of-county records changes workload and revenue considerations for the Vigo County vital records office. Any new fee structure would need to be approved in open session and posted, and gender-change requests now depend on state or court authorization rather than local administrative processing.
