New Standards
New Standards for Adoption Service Providers
The accreditation regulations published in February 2006 are designed to ensure that U.S. adoption agencies perform their duties in a manner that is consistent with the Convention and the IAA.
These regulations, published in the Federal Register, can be found at www.travel.state.gov under the topics of Children and Family and Hague Implementation.
Prospective adoptive parents should know that, in order to be accredited, their Convention-accredited adoption service provider has been evaluated based on comprehensive standards contained in the accreditation regulations. As a general matter, all adoptions from Convention countries must involve a primary adoption service provider that is accredited.
Subpart F of the accreditation regulations (CFR Part 9) contains the standards that accrediting entities use in evaluating applicants for accreditation.
Adoption service providers will not be required to meet every aspect of every applicable standard in order to be accredited. Instead, accrediting entities may accredit an adoption service provider if that provider is in substantial compliance with applicable standards developed by the accrediting entities and approved by the Department, as outlined in section 96.27 of the accreditation regulations (22 CFR Part 96).
The standards in subpart F are organized into nine major divisions:
1. Licensing and Corporate Governance
2. Financial and Risk Management
3. Ethical Practices and Responsibilities
4. Professional Qualifications and Training for Employees
5. Information Disclosure, Fee Practices, and Quality Control Policies and Practices
6. Responding to Complaints and Records and Reports Management
7. Service Planning and Delivery
8. Standards for Cases in which a Child is Immigrating to the United States in Connection with an Adoption (Incoming Cases)
9. Standards for Cases in which a Child is Emigrating from the United States in Connection with an Adoption (Outgoing Cases)
Professional Adoption Practices
The accreditation regulations work to ensure that your adoption service provider operates using sound professional practices. Some examples of the professional practices that are required of an adoption service provider include the following standards:
- The agency has (or, in the case of an individual, is) a CEO or equivalent official with an appropriate educational and management background and experience in adoption services.
- The agency has a board of directors or governing body that oversees the agency.
- The agency operates on a sound financial basis, maintaining on average at least two months cash reserves to meet its operating expenses.
- The agency maintains directors’ and officers’ insurance, errors and omissions insurance, and professional liability insurance.
- The agency properly trains their employees on intercountry adoption.
Previously, there were no uniform requirements for agencies or persons that provided intercountry adoption services. Although intercountry adoption will always be a complex process, the safeguards in the IAA and the regulations are meant to ensure that only legitimate and sound agencies are able to provide services in Convention adoptions.
Ethical Adoption Practices
The accreditation regulations also work to ensure that your adoption service provider operates using ethical practices. For example, agencies must have a written policy expressly forbidding the agency, its employees, and agents or facilitators who operate under the supervision of the agency, from giving money to a child’s birth parents (or other individuals) as payment for a child or as an inducement to release a child. An agency does not offer incentive fees for locating children or placing children for adoption. In addition, agencies will be required to subject their finances to independent audits to comply with ethical practices.
Adoption service providers must also disclose to the accrediting entity:
- Any written complaints against their agency
- Past or pending investigations by public authorities against their agency
- Instances in which their agency’s license has been suspended or cancelled
- Bankruptcy petitions
- Instances when their agency has been found guilty of a crime or any civil or administrative violation
- Disciplinary actions against their agency
The accreditation regulations establish consistent standards of practice for adoption service providers.
