Hague Accredited and Approved Agencies
Although our agency is not on this list (I’m shocked, BTW) it does not look like it matters because if your case was started before April 1, 2008 your case is not a Hague Treaty case so your agency does not need to be Hague Accredited at the time of your adoption.
However, in order to continue to process adoptions after April 1 agencies will have to be Hague accredited and comply with the Hague Treaty. (I do know that our agency is taking these steps.)
Accreditation is based on many standards and several agencies are tweaking their adoption procedures to ensure families that the most appropriate practice and service is provided.
What kinds of issues do the standards address?
The accreditation regulations set standards for accreditation and approval that are designed to ensure that U.S. accredited agencies and approved persons perform their duties in accordance with the Hague Convention and the IAA.
Key Convention Principles
These standards relate to the adoption service provider’s compliance with state licensing and similar requirements and to its corporate and internal structure and internal oversight mechanisms. They include standards on issues such as the organization’s authority to act under applicable law in the jurisdictions in which it operates and its board composition. The standards also address disclosure to the accrediting entity of information relating to prior names under which the provider has operated, organizations it is associated with, and personnel it employs.
Financial and Risk Management. These budget, audit, insurance, risk assessment and compensation standards address issues such as disclosure of financial information, financial soundness, safeguards to prevent charitable donations from influencing child placement decisions, contingency planning, risk assessment, professional liability insurance, bonding of organization officials, disclosure of vendor relationships, and compensation methods and levels. Ethical Practices and Responsibilities. These standards relate to the suitability of the organization to provide adoption services consistent with the Convention and to the manner in which the organization prohibits child buying by its employees and agents. Included are standards that address disclosure of information related to current and past practices of the organization and its individual directors, officers and employees and standards that address payments to birth-parents and others in connection with adoptions.
Ethical Practices and Responsibilities. These standards relate to the suitability of the organization to provide adoption services consistent with the Convention and to the manner in which the organization prohibits child buying by its employees and agents. Included are standards that address disclosure of information related to current and past practices of the organization and its individual directors, officers and employees and standards that address payments to birthparents and others in connection with adoptions.
Professional Qualifications and Training for Employees. These standards address the education, experience, and training of various personnel of the organization. The education and experience standards include standards relating to social work supervisors, certain non-supervisory social service employees, and home study and child background study preparers. The training standards for social service personnel include standards on orientation training, initial training, and continuing education.
Information Disclosure, Fee Practices, and Quality Control Policies and Practices. Standards on information disclosure primarily address disclosure to prospective clients of information such as agency policies and practices, supervised providers to be used, and the adoption services contract that the adoptive parent will be asked to sign. The standards on fee policies and procedures focus on fee-related disclosures to prospective adoptive parents, including fee levels, purposes for which the fees are paid, and fee collection and refund policies and practices. The standards also address issues such as the organization’s capacity to transfer funds abroad and its handling of unforeseen expenses. Standards related to quality control relate to issues such as preferential treatment of organization insiders, liability waivers, use of the Internet, and cooperation with the accrediting entity and the Department of State.
Responding to Complaints and Records and Reports Management. The standards on complaints primarily address complaint procedures and methods of improving adoption service delivery. They work in tandem with the Hague Complaint Registry outlined in Subpart J of the accreditation regulations. The standards on retention, preservation, and disclosure of adoption records include standards on how adoption records are to be retained, safeguarded, accessed and, when necessary, transferred. The standards on case tracking, data management, and reporting focus on reporting of both case-specific and general information to the accrediting entity and the Department that is relevant to the IAA-mandated Congressional reporting and case registry functions.
Service Planning and Delivery. These standards address the responsibilities of a primary provider, the use of U.S. and foreign supervised providers, and, where permissible in accordance with section 96.14, the use of other private foreign providers. The standards on primary providers relate primarily to the organization’s capacity to supervise. Standards on the use of supervised providers include several standards related to ensuring supervised provider compliance with key standards appearing elsewhere in subpart F. Standards on use of other foreign providers address verification of compliance with relevant Convention articles and applicable foreign law in the absence of a supervisory relationship.
Standards for cases in which a child is immigrating to the United States in connection with an adoption (incoming cases). The standards relating to the preparation of home studies generally reflect Convention and Department of Homeland Security requirements and procedures. Standards on preparation and training of prospective adoptive parents incorporate training on a wide range of subjects, including issues specific to the particular child being adopted. Standards on the provision of medical and social information include standards on information disclosure to prospective adoptive parents and on the length of time before a referral may be withdrawn from a prospective adoptive parent. Standards on placement, post-placement monitoring until final adoption, and post-adoption services relate to the duties of the agency from the time of placement forward, including transfer of the child, required reporting, and handling of problems that may arise following placement. (The limited standards relating to post-adoption services reflect the fact that post-adoption services are not adoption services under the IAA.) Standards on Convention communication and coordination functions in incoming cases focus primarily on the organization’s performance of various procedural steps that the Convention requires in individual adoptions.
Standards for cases in which a child is emigrating from the United States in connection with an adoption (outgoing cases). There are standards on child background studies and consents that largely mirror the corresponding Convention requirements. Standards on placement reflect the Convention and IAA’s priority for domestic placement, as well as other factors, and include standards associated with preparation and transfer of the child and post-placement duties, where applicable. Standards on Convention communication and coordination functions in outgoing cases largely reflect the various procedural steps required by the Convention and IAA in outgoing cases.
Does my organization need to meet every standard in the accreditation regulations to be accredited or approved?
Applicants for accreditation or approval should strive to satisfy every applicable standard. Less than full compliance with some standards may not be a bar to accreditation or approval, however. Accrediting entities will determine whether an applicant may be accredited or approved by using a substantial compliance system approved by the Department, as outlined in section 96.27 of the accreditation regulations. (Temporary accreditation involves different standards and procedures and is addressed separately, in Subpart N of the accreditation regulations.)
