Convention Adoptions
With certain limited exceptions, for every Convention adoption, an accredited agency is responsible for ensuring that six adoption services are provided.
The regulations define these adoptions services as:
1. Identifying a child for adoption and arranging an adoption;
2. Securing the necessary consent to termination of parental rights and to adoption;
3. Performing a home study and reporting on prospective adoptive parents or a background study and report on a child;
4. Making non-judicial determinations of a child’s best interests and of the appropriateness of an adoptive placement;
5. Monitoring a case after a child has been placed with prospective adoptive parents until final adoption; and
6. Assuming custody of a child and providing childcare or any other social service, when necessary, because of a disruption pending alternative placement.
Primary Providers and Supervised Providers
The adoption service provider that is responsible for ensuring that all six adoption services are provided to you is called the primary provider. Primary providers can be organizations or individuals who are accredited. They may use other agencies, persons, or non-governmental entities to provide one or more of the adoption services, but that adoption service provider must generally operate under the supervision of the primary provider. These adoption service providers are called supervised providers. Supervised providers may be agents, facilitators, attorneys, or other organizations working either in the United States or in a Convention country.
The primary provider develops and implements a service plan for providing all adoption services to you and provides all such services either directly or by using, among other providers, supervised providers in the United States or in another Convention country.
Note: More information about primary providers and supervised providers can be found in sections 9. - 9. of the accreditation regulations.
Home Studies
The accreditation regulations include home studies in their definition of adoption services. They also set forth several provisions designed to ensure that the home study is conducted in a professional manner and that it is transmitted to the proper authorities in an expeditious fashion. For example, the regulations require that:
- The adoption service provider ensures that the home study is performed in accordance with state and federal law.
- The agency’s employee who conducts the home study is not only authorized or licensed to complete a home study under the laws of the states in which he or she operates, but also is supervised by someone who has prior experience in family and children’s services or intercountry adoption. Adoption service providers must take all appropriate measures to ensure the timely transmission of the approved home study to the Central Authority of the child’s country of origin.
- The expected total fee and estimated expenses for a home study are disclosed in writing.
A social work professional or organization that only performs a home study or a child background study in the United States in connection with a Convention adoption, and does not provide any of the other adoption services in the case is known as an exempted provider, and does not have to be accredited. However, the home study performed must subsequently be approved by an accredited adoption service provider.
Training of Prospective Adoptive Parents
The accreditation regulations further specify that the primary provider must offer at least ten hours of training (independent of the home study) to prospective adoptive parents before they travel to the country of origin to adopt the child, or before the child is placed with the family for adoption. The goal of this regulation is to promote a successful Convention intercountry adoption. Such mandatory training addresses a wide range of topics, including the intercountry adoption process, developmental risk factors associated with children from the expected country of origin, and attachment disorders. The training also prepares you for the adoption of a particular child, when possible.
Adoption service providers record the final nature and extent of the training in the adoption records.
Child’s Medical Records
Adoption service providers are responsible for providing you with an English language translation of the child’s medical records, no later than two weeks before the adoption or two weeks before the date when you travel to the country of origin to complete the adoption (whichever is earlier). Adoption service providers make reasonable efforts to obtain available information, including the following:
- The date that the Convention country or other child welfare authority assumed custody of the child and the child’s condition at that time
- History of any significant illnesses, hospitalizations, special needs, and changes in the child’s condition since the child came into custody
- Growth data, including prenatal and birth history
- Specific information on the known health risks in the specific region or country of origin
- If a medical examination of the child is arranged, the date of the examination, and the name, contact information, and credentials of the physician who examined the child
- Information detailing all tests performed on the child
- Current health data
- Information about the child’s birth family, cultural, racial, religious, ethnic, and linguistic background
- Information about the child’s past placements prior to adoption
- Dates on any videotapes and photographs taken of the child
Adoption service providers may not withdraw a referral until you have had two weeks to consider the medical and social needs of the child and your ability to meet those needs.
The Transfer of the Child
Your adoption service provider will take every appropriate measure to ensure that the transfer of physical custody of the child occurs in secure circumstances and when possible, takes place in your company.
