One office issues every Kansas birth certificate: the Office of Vital Statistics in the Curtis State Office Building at 1000 SW Jackson Street in Topeka, where the register begins on July 1, 1911. For a birth before that date the state has nothing to issue, and the inquiry goes to the county clerk in the county where the birth occurred. Walk in customer service runs from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon on weekdays, with the office itself open from eight until five.
The money is a search fee rather than a price per document. The fee regulation sets twenty dollars for the first certified copy or abstract and twenty dollars for each additional copy or abstract of the same record requested at the same time, so Kansas does not discount a second copy the way many states do, and the fee buys a five year search of the files covering the year named plus two years either side. A requester may name a different five year span, or more than one, but each span costs the full fee, and where the certificate is not located the fee is kept for the search. Two groups are exempt under the fee statute. Local offices that issue vital records appear on the Kansas county pages.
- Twenty dollars, and twenty again: the first copy and every additional copy of the same record cost the same, with no discount.
- A five year window: the fee buys a search of the year named plus two years either side, and each further span costs again.
- Free for veterans and voters: one copy free on veterans benefit correspondence, and free where a certificate is needed to vote.
- The register opens July 1, 1911: earlier births are a question for the county clerk, not the state office.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Kansas's own systems: the Kansas fee statute, K.S.A. 65-2418, the disclosure statute, K.S.A. 65-2422d, the adoption statute, K.S.A. 65-2423, the department fee regulations K.A.R. 28-17-6 and 28-17-12 as filed with the Secretary of State, the state application for a certified copy of a Kansas birth certificate, form VS-235, the federal guidance on where to write for Kansas vital records, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment birth certificate page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The two free routes
The fee statute carries two exemptions that are worth knowing before anybody pays. The first is for veterans. Where a person exhibits correspondence from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or the Kansas Office of Veterans Services indicating that they are applying for benefits and need the requested information to obtain them, the secretary is directed to charge no fee for a certified copy, an abstract or a search; a second or subsequent copy carries the usual fee.
The second is for voting. No fee may be charged or accepted for a certified copy of a birth certificate requested by a person aged seventeen or over for the purpose of voting, where the applicant lacks the identification the election statutes require or needs the record to meet the voter registration requirements. That route asks something of the applicant in return: a sworn statement that they plan to register to vote in Kansas and do not possess any of the documents that count as evidence of United States citizenship, with those documents specifically listed on the affidavit.
How the fee is divided
Kansas writes into statute where the twenty dollars goes, which explains why the figure does not fall for a second copy. Three dollars of the fee for the first copy of a birth certificate or abstract, and one dollar of the fee for each additional copy of the same record requested at the same time, is paid to the state treasurer for the permanent families account of the family and children investment fund. The balance goes to the civil registration and health statistics fee fund that pays for the register itself.
Death certificates are split differently, with four dollars of the first copy and two dollars of each additional copy going to the district coroners fund. A requester gains nothing from this arithmetic except an explanation, but it is the reason the price list has no bulk rate.
The eligibility test, and who decides it
The disclosure statute states the test in terms of interest rather than of relationship. Except in the limited child support situations the statute names, the state registrar may not permit inspection of the records, or issue a certified copy or abstract of a certificate or part of one, unless satisfied that the applicant has a direct interest in the matter recorded and that the information contained in the record is necessary for the determination of personal or property rights.
The application puts the same test in plainer words: the records are not open for public inspection, and the requester must be named on the record, be an immediate family member, or provide legal proof that the record is necessary for the determination of personal or property rights, with guardianship papers where a court has appointed a guardian. If the registrar says no, the decision is not the end of the matter, because the statute makes it subject to review by the secretary or by a court under the Kansas judicial review act.
Identification, with and without a photo
The office asks for a photocopy of a current government issued photo identification, state or federal, and accepts one issued by the United States or by another country of residence; a current driving licence, a current passport or visa, a current state identification card and a current military identification all qualify, copied front and back, and originals are not to be posted. A temporary driving licence needs one further document alongside it.
For an applicant with no government photo identification the office takes photocopies of any two different documents from a short list: a signed social security card, a bank statement showing the current address, a vehicle registration or title showing the current address, a current utility bill showing the current address, or a current pay stub carrying the applicant name, the social security number and the name and address of the business.
The form also wants a handwritten signature and a specific reason for the request, which the office says it asks so that it can provide the right service.
The wallet card, and why it is not identification
Kansas offers a wallet size card as well as a full certified copy, at the same twenty dollars, and the application warns about its limits in terms worth repeating. The card does not contain parental information, and it carries an ink seal rather than an embossed one. It may not be accepted for a passport application, for travel, for social security purposes, for school enrolment or for a driving licence. Anyone obtaining a certificate in order to prove identity to another agency should therefore order the full copy, and treat the card as a convenience rather than a document of record.
Cheques and money orders are made payable to Kansas Vital Statistics, cash is not to be sent, fees expire twelve months from the date of the request, and the office notes that several requests for different records may be handled and posted separately rather than arriving together.
Adoption, and a foreign birth with a Kansas certificate
The adoption statute sets out what happens to the paperwork. On receiving a certified decree of adoption, or the documents evidencing a finalised foreign adoption, together with the report of adoption form, the state registrar prepares a supplementary certificate or abstract in the adopted person new name, then seals and files the original certificate of birth with the certified copy attached. Those sealed documents may be opened by the registrar only on the demand of the adopted person if of legal age, or by order of a court, and on a certified order annulling an adoption the original certificate is restored to its original place in the files.
A separate provision covers a child born in a foreign country but adopted in Kansas, or born and adopted abroad with the adoption filed here: the registrar registers a Kansas birth certificate showing the new name from the decree, the true country of birth and the date of birth, and the certificate states on its face that it is issued under that subsection of the statute.
The other fees in the same regulation
The regulation that sets the twenty dollar certificate fee also prices the unusual requests. A certified copy of an heirloom certificate, the decorative version of the record, costs forty dollars. A copy of the supporting documentation used to place a certificate on file costs twenty dollars, with ten cents for each page where the documentation runs beyond five pages. A non certified copy or abstract sought for statistical research purposes costs fifteen dollars.
A search of the files needed to prepare an amendment to a certificate already on file carries the same twenty dollars as an ordinary search. And filing a delayed certificate of birth, or a foreign born certificate, costs thirty dollars for the filing and registration under the companion regulation, after which a certified copy may be obtained at the ordinary price.
Confidentiality, and the records that are open
The disclosure statute makes it unlawful for an officer or employee of the state to disclose data contained in vital statistical records except as authorised, and extends the same prohibition to anyone who possesses, stores or handles the records under contract with the state. It also forbids disclosure of information about the birth of a child in a manner that enables a determination that the child was born out of wedlock, except on court order where the information is necessary to determine personal or property rights, or to the federal and state officers who need it for child support enforcement.
One category is open to anybody, and it matters to genealogists: records of births, deaths or marriages created before July 1, 1911 under the 1885 session laws, and not in the custody of the secretary of health and environment, are open to inspection by any person, with the confidentiality rules expressly not applying to them.
Questions about Kansas birth certificates
Related Kansas records
Kansas's other records guides on this site are the Kansas public records law guide for the Open Records Act, the Kansas death records guide for the same office, the Kansas court records guide for the judicial branch case look up, and the Kansas county pages for every county office.