The Kansas Office of Vital Statistics sits inside the Department of Health and Environment at the Curtis State Office Building, 1000 SW Jackson Street, Suite 120, Topeka, and its application for a certified copy of a Kansas death certificate says in its first line that death certificates are on file from July 1, 1911 to the present. The fee, set by regulation K.A.R. 28-17-6, is $20 for each certified copy, and the application explains what it pays for: a search of five years of records, the year indicated plus two years before and two after, or any consecutive five year span the applicant names, with each extra span costing another $20. If the certificate is not located the $20 is retained for the search.
Access runs on the direct interest test in K.S.A. 65-2422d, which the application restates: records filed with the office are not open to public inspection, and the requester must be named on the record, be an immediate family member, or provide legal proof that the record is needed to determine personal or property rights. The office lists parents, the current spouse, adult children, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews, all of them 18 or older, with a legal guardian sending the court order. The same statute, at subsection (h), opens a different door for historians: birth, death and marriage records created before July 1, 1911 under the 1885 session laws, when they are not in the custody of the secretary, are open to inspection by any person.
- $20, five years: each certified copy costs $20 and the fee searches the stated year plus two years either side; the money is kept if no record is found.
- July 1, 1911: the first day of the state death file; earlier records, kept by county clerks, are open to any person under K.S.A. 65-2422d(h).
- Aunts and nephews: the eligible list runs to grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, all aged 18 or older, alongside parents, spouse and adult children.
- Twelve months: a paid fee expires 12 months from the date of the request, and a veteran applying for federal benefits pays no fee at all for the first copy.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Kansas's own systems: the Kansas application for a certified copy of a death certificate, form VS-236, K.S.A. 65-2422d, disclosure of vital statistics records, K.S.A. 65-2418, fees for copies and searches, the National Center for Health Statistics where to write for vital records page for Kansas, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Office of Vital Statistics page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who may order, and the age floor
The application's relationship boxes show how far Kansas extends a family: self, mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, current spouse, maternal and paternal grandparent, paternal and maternal uncle, paternal and maternal aunt, legal guardian with the custody order, and other, to be specified. On its reverse the form summarizes who is eligible to obtain most certificates: parents, the current spouse, adult children, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews, each of whom must be at least 18 and must provide identification and proof of a direct interest.
Anyone outside that circle, such as an executor, a creditor or an insurer, needs legal proof that the record is necessary to settle personal or property rights, which is the standard K.S.A. 65-2422d(c) sets for the state registrar.
The statute puts the decision in the registrar's hands and allows review by the secretary or a court under the Kansas Judicial Review Act. It also fences off a different kind of request: data from vital records may be used for research with no identifying use, fact of death information may go to state and federal benefit agencies for file clearance only, and each month the registrar sends county election officers and district court clerks a list of residents 18 and older whose deaths were filed in the preceding month, to clean voter rolls and jury lists.
The $20 fee, where part of it goes, and when it expires
The $20 fee is paid by check or money order to Kansas Vital Statistics, and the application asks that no cash be mailed for the applicant's own protection. K.S.A. 65-2418 directs part of every death certificate fee away from the office: $4 of the fee for the first certified copy and $2 of each fee for an additional copy of the same record ordered at the same time go to the district coroners fund, with the balance to the civil registration and health statistics fee fund.
The application carries two further rules under the heading of important miscellaneous information: fees expire 12 months from the date of the request, and multiple requests for different records may be handled and mailed separately.
The same statute waives the fee once for a veteran. A person who shows correspondence from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or the Kansas office of veterans services indicating an application for federal benefits that needs the record pays nothing for a certified copy or search, with the usual fee charged for a second or later copy.
What every request must contain
The form lists five requirements and warns that a request will be returned if any is missing: the completed form, a copy of both the front and back of a current legal photo identification, the fee, the signature of the person requesting the certificate, and for mail a self addressed stamped envelope. The federal where to write page for Kansas puts the signature rule in capitals, saying the applicant must include a copy of a photo identification and a handwritten signature with the request.
The form then asks for the name on the certificate at death, the date, place and county of death in Kansas, race and sex, date of birth or age at death, marital status and spouse, both parents' names before their first marriages, the residence at death, the place of birth, the funeral home and the city or county of burial, all of which help the office pick the right entry from a five year span.
Identification the office accepts
One primary document from the list on the back of the form is enough: a government driver license, military card, state card, valid passport or visa, a permanent resident or alien registration card, an employment authorization card, a re entry permit or refugee travel document, a veterans card with an intact photo, a certificate of naturalization with an intact photo, a concealed carry license or a resident alien card, all current, signed and copied on both sides.
The office states that Matricula cards are not accepted. An applicant with no photo identification sends any two documents that show a current address, such as a temporary driver license, a signed Social Security card, a bank statement, a vehicle registration or title, a utility bill on company letterhead, a pay stub with the employer's name and address, an insurance card or policy, a parole document, a tribal card, an inmate card with a signed memo from a counselor or parole officer, a filed tax return, a letter from a government agency, a hospital bill, court documents, a W-2 or a letter from an employer, or a voter registration card from a country outside the United States.
Walking in at Curtis, or writing to Topeka
Walk in hours at 1000 SW Jackson, Suite 120, are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and live telephones answer at 785-296-1400 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., where the federal page says a recorded line also gives current fees and the option to speak to a representative. The office use section of the form shows that cash, check, credit card and money order are all taken at the counter. A mailed application goes to the Kansas Office of Vital Statistics at the same Topeka address with the stamped return envelope.
The federal where to write page notes that for deaths before July 1911 the request goes instead to the county clerk in the county where the death occurred, and the Kansas statute makes those older county records open to any person.
Fraud, alteration and the felony line
The application closes with a warning drawn from two statutes. Except as the Uniform Vital Statistics Act allows, no person may prepare or issue any certificate that purports to be an original, certified copy or abstract of a vital record, under K.S.A. 65-2422d(g). Vital records identity theft, which the form describes as obtaining certificates, or making, counterfeiting, altering or amending a certified copy of a vital record with intent to sell it or to deceive, is a severity level 8 nonperson felony under K.S.A. 21-3830a.
Combined with the direct interest rule, that is why a Kansas death certificate never changes hands at the counter without the requester's own signed form and photo identification on file.
Where the KDHE pages fit, and the records beyond them
The department's own Office of Vital Statistics page is the front door for the application forms, the amendment request form and the genealogy requests page, and the figures in this guide come from the application form, the statutes and the federal directory read on October 15, 2026. A correction to a death certificate is handled on the office's amendment request form through the same Topeka address. For the estate that follows a death, the Kansas court records guide covers the district court probate file, and the Kansas property records guide the register of deeds where land passes to heirs.
The birth side of the office is in the Kansas birth certificates guide, and other agency requests under the Kansas Open Records Act in the Kansas public records law guide.
Questions about Kansas death records
Related Kansas records
Kansas readers can continue with the Kansas birth certificates guide for the same office, Kansas court records for probate, Kansas property records for the register of deeds, the Kansas public records law guide, and the Kansas county pages for every county clerk.