Some of you may have read elsewhere that the United States is getting ready to implement the Hague adoption treaty. As a birth mother who placed in a domestic adoption, perhaps you feel that doesn’t effect you or matter in your life. Wrong.
As part of the treaty, all agencies must be accredited. The Council on Accreditation (COA) is in charge of this process. Again, what’s that mean to you? The COA has opened up a comment period to the public through January 31, 2007. If you’ve had an unethical or unlawful experience with an adoption agency, this is your chance to speak up.
Your agency isn’t listed? A fellow blogger explained a possible reason.
The COA has recently doubled the adoption provider list. And from what I can tell they didn’t notify anyone. They have just been sliding agencies onto the list.
If someone has additional information on this, please correct me. But this strikes me as sneaky behavior. An agency can just wait to send their application in and be on the list for a limited time, rather then a full 30 days. I think this is very inappropriate behavior because most families read the list once. There was no communication that the list had to be constantly checked.
I’m also in high standing agreement that agencies who report late should remain up for a full 30 days. My unethical agency is currently not listed. From what I can tell, it either falls under that reason (they’ve never acted ethically before, why start now!) or they’re trying to dodge bullets by using a semantics arguement. Either way, the fact remains that if your agency isn’t listed, check it daily and have your response ready to go the instant you see it listed. Don’t forget to check on the 31st of January.
If you, personally, have not experienced an unethical adoption but know of someone who has, be they birthparent, adoptive parent, foster parent, adoptee, (etc) then please forward the link on. Post it in your blog. E-mail it to your adoption minded friends.
If you want to make a change, this is a chance. Speak out about your experiences. Make your voice heard. And a note for those wary of such a thing: you can make your comments anonymously.
Again: http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=54&cont=4337
Jenna, All agencies who will be placing children internationaly must be acredited.
Hague is basically an agreement between sending and recieving countries (sort of like the inter-state compact is for in-country adoptions).
I do not think it has alot to do with domestic adoptions, unless the U.S. born child will be adopted to another country.
Still a chance to have a say if you have had an unethical international adoption experience.
Deb,
All agencies who place children internationally DO have to be accredited. THUS, if an agency does domestic AND international adoptions, they need to be accredited because of their dual nature. The COA wants all unethical activity reported.
I see.
I guess I was not thinking along the lines of a single agency doing both domestic and international, but then I never used an agency.
Just do a simple google search. Many of the “big” adoption agencies do both. That’s why I posted this.