The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption - page 2

"THE HAGUE CONVENTION" > Page 1, 2, 3

Enter the Federal Government
Theoretically, it could happen that way, with one central federal authority acting as coordinator for the state programs. However, the current bill before congress, HB2909, for ratification and implementation, has tied an elaborate bureaucracy to the Convention.

Of course ratifying the bill without an implementation plan achieves nothing, but the question has been raised by opponents as to whether this particular implementation plan will benefit the adoption community. The bill calls for regulations some consider unnecessary, contains wording that makes it appear as though controls over unethical practices do not exist when, in fact, they do, and the language is vague concerning accreditation requirements and the amount of fees and costs that could be passed on to adopting parents.

Unethical Practices
Proponents of the legislation introduced families who have adopted terribly damaged children. Those families stated (probably accurately) that they were not adequately informed or prepared by their adoption agency or facilitator. Everyone agrees this is terrible, and that families should be fully informed. Bill proponents then point to the wording of the legislation that mandates full medical disclosure. However, according to David Ptasnik of Americans Adopting Orphans (a for-profit agency licensed in Washington and Missouri) who opposes the bill, what they're not telling us is "that every state has rules that require parents be given all medical information. Adding this requirement at the federal level does nothing to increase agency compliance, and when we look at complaints about practices, many of these children were adopted through agencies that are already accredited!"

On this point, the bill appears to give the federal government a foothold in the process where it didn't have one before, rather than adding anything new.

Accreditation
Apparently, those who drafted the bill think that state licensing procedures are not adequate and could not be made adequate, so the federal government would step in here as well.

There is an entity that already exists that performs agency accreditation on an optional basis. The Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children, Inc. (COA) has been around for 20 years performing accreditation based on its determination of "best practices." Since this entity has been directly involved in this process, it is almost certain that they will be the one, or one of the entities, to assume this function on behalf of the government the within the scope of the Convention.

Convention Text from the Hague Text of HB2909 from the US Government

Who Will Be Accredited? Who Won't?
Based on reports from agencies that have been accredited and others that are exploring the requirements, those that can afford it will be accredited and those that can't, won't.

Bill opponent Ptasnik admits that his agency could survive the financial burden of accreditation, but says that many others could not. Giving some numbers, he says, "I estimate it will take at least $20,000 in staff time to complete, the fee to the COA will be somewhere between $7,000 and $10,000. I will have to buy at least $5,000 more insurance than our agency currently carries, and I will probably have to change the corporate nature of our company, with the result of losing perhaps as much as $250,000 in effective assets. It is also possible we may have to add more staff with MSWs."

Ptasnik's comments about changing the corporate nature of the agency reflect the fact that its current for-profit status would make it ineligible to meet Hague standards, whether the entire implementation plan is adopted or not, and he would have to make the change to non-profit status. {See paragraph (b) of accreditation requirements.]

On their Web site, Christian World Adoption announces that accreditation took them two years of hard work. How much that cost is known only to CWA, but they certainly believe it was worth it, and that this particular accreditation process is one that will be accepted by the Hague implementation plan (HB2909).

More generally, COA fees can range from around $3,300 to $57,000, depending on the agency budget. COA also requires annual financial audits which, according to a CPA, can cost upwards of $15,000 for a non-profit agency.

While the costs may be high, is it worth it to have controls included in the plan in place? More degreed staff members?

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