Frequently Asked Questions

We will be unable to assist you on any California birth and adoption records information request dated prior to the 1970’s and not associated with the Florence Crittenton Services of Orange County. The Crittenton home in Orange County was established and incorporated in 1966 as an independent Crittenton agency with no shared governance or operational structure with any other Crittenton agencies throughout the U.S. Therefore, all Crittenton agencies, to this day only share a national child welfare legacy but nothing more. We have no connection or records to adoption cases of the early or mid 20th century. We merely keep the national Crittenton mission alive in Southern California by maintaining historical connections to our national legacy. *In addition, due to privacy rights we are unable to provide information about adoption cases.

All we can suggest is the following:

a) For California adoption information the state has a website for biological parents and adoptees to find each other, if both have authorized the connection. You need to register and if the birth mother has done the same, each receives the others information. Further information can be done by conducting an internet search for the California adoption registry. Closed adoptions were the norm from the early 1900s to the 1970s. The intention was to protect the privacy rights of the birth mother, which will make it difficult to find adoption information prior to the 1970s.

b) Questions about Crittenton adoption cases do come to us from time to time so the National Crittenton Foundation set up a community forum for people trying to find lost family members that somehow had a Crittenton connection. For more information on this forum: http://www.nationalcrittenton.org/crittenton-connection/

If you were a client of Crittenton Services for Children and Families headquartered in Fullerton, Ca. and are in need copies of your educational records while you were enrolled in an Orange County school at the time you were receiving treatment services through our organization you can connect with the Orange County Department of Education. Many Crittenton youth were enrolled with the Orange County Department of Education – Alternative Education ACCESS Program. You should connect with their records and attendance office to see if they can give you access to your educational records. www.ocde.us/ACCESS/Pages/Attendance-and-Records.aspx

For former clients that may have attended one of the high schools in the Orange County area during the time you were receiving treatment services through our organization you may want to connect with the Fullerton Joint Union High School District as we typically partnered with this high school district if a former client was eligible to enroll. They might be able to assist you with ordering your educational records via their website. *You will need to know what high school (if any) that you attended during your stay at Crittenton Services. However, most clients used the ACCESS program provided by the Orange County Department of Education. https://www.fjuhsd.org/Page/1528

Crittenton Services for Children and Families prioritizes the safety, health and well-being of all the clients we serve throughout a five county region in Southern California. For those contacting Crittenton for information specifically to know whereabouts or information about a current client we will be unable to assist you. It is difficult to quickly determine exactly what program a client is enrolled in as we have multiple programming efforts and offices throughout Southern California. Furthermore, due to California privacy laws and HIPAA regulations we are unable to confirm, deny or even provide any type of information of a client currently using any of our services.