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# To: U. S. Department of State

CA/ OCS/PRI

Adoption Regulations Docket Room

SA-29

2201 C Street , NW

Washington, D.C. 20520

Electronically emailed to : <adoptionsregs@state.gov>

Re: State/ AR-01/ 96

## Adoptions & Aid International Comments on 22 CFR Parts 96

Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption; Intercountry Adoption Act of
2000;

Accreditation of Agencies; Approval of Persons; Proposed Rules

# [Table of Contents Starting on Page Number]{.underline}

1.  Profile of Adoptions & Aid International 2

2.  Summary of AAi Concerns 3

3.  Comments and Recommendations on the Regulations 3

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a.  Subpart C -- 96.13 3

b.  Subpart F -- 96.30 4

c.  Subpart F -- 96.33 4

d.  Subpart F -- 96.37 5

e.  Subpart F -- 96.38 7

f.  Subpart F -- 96.39 7

g.  Subpart F -- 96.40 8

h.  Subpart F -- 96.48 9

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4.  Closing Remarks 9

5.  Appendixes

[Profile of Adoptions & Aid International]{.underline}

Adoptions & Aid International (AAi) is a non-profit charitable child
placing agency licensed since 1999 by the State of Texas. AAi currently
provides adoption services including home study, adoption education,
placement and post-placement services to United States citizens in the
US and abroad. Our current intercountry programs include The Russian
Federation, The Republic of Georgia, Ukraine and Armenia. AAi provides
humanitarian aid to orphanages through our programs. AAi is a member of
Joint Council on International Children's Services, the American
Adoption Congress, Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoptions and the
International Adoption Consortium.

In 2003, we will complete approximately 50 international adoptions.

[AAi Response to the Hague Convention]{.underline}

Adoptions & Aid International firmly believes that children throughout
the world deserve permanency in a family environment. AAi believes
children should remain with their birth family or in adoptive placements
in their native country wherever possible. When this is not possible,
AAi advocates for the placement of children through international
adoption.

AAi considers the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and the
Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 a vital aspect to protecting children
from exploitation, child trafficking, and other violations of basic
human rights.

AAi looks forward to continuing our work in improving the lives of
children through international adoption and we appreciate the
opportunity to submit our views and comments on the proposed
regulations.

[Summary of AAi Concerns]{.underline}

Adoptions & Aid International would like to express concerns with the
following areas:

-   Insurance and budget requirements (96.33)

-   Credentials required of staff (96.37)

-   Training requirements (96.38)

-   State licensing requirements regarding placements out of state
    (96.30)

-   Blanket waivers (96.39)

-   Fee requirements (96.40)

-   Entities that are exempt from accreditation (96.13)

-   Preparation/ Training requirements of parents (96.48)

Each of these areas is discussed in detail in the next section.

[Comments and Recommendations on the Regulations]{.underline}

**Section 96.13 Activities that do not require accreditation, approval
or supervision**.

-   **96.13 (a)** Home studies and Child Background studies. A social
    work professional or organizations that is performing a home study
    on the prospective adoptive parents or a child background study
    (including any reports or updates) in connection with a Convention
    adoption but is not providing any other adoption service in the case
    is an "exempted provider". Exempted providers do not have to be
    accredited, temporarily accredited, approved, or operates as a
    supervised provider. The home study or child background study
    prepared by an exempted provider must be submitted to an accredited
    agency or temporarily accredited agency, not an approved person, for
    review and approval. An accredited agency must approve an exempted
    provider's home study in accordance with 96.47 (c) and an exempted
    providers child background study in accordance with 96.35 (b).

There are several problems with this "exemption" for homestudy
providers. First, as the regulations are written a home study provider
does not need to be accredited, temporarily accredited, or a supervised
provider. As a result, the home study provider will not be mandated to
follow the credentialing requirements for home study preparers
(education and experience) yet the regulation dictate that an accredited
agency approves the home study. This puts the accredited agency at risk
of their own accreditation by not having homestudies that are prepared
by qualified preparers. Secondly, as the regulations are written in
respect to insurance and risk of providing service through providers,
this creates an additional level of risk since the accredited agency
often cannot control whom a client chooses to use as a home study
preparer and whether that provider offers a low level of risk by being
qualified to prepare home studies through the regulations. Lastly, many
foreign countries require that the home study agency make a written
commitment to complete the post-placement. There is potential for
problems, including denial of adoption, if the foreign country requires
the post-placements to be done by the home study agency.

> **Recommendation:** This section should be stricken from the
> regulations. Homestudy and Child background study providers should be
> required to be at minimum a supervised provider.

**96.30 State Licensing**

-   **96.30 (c)** If it provides adoption services in a State in which
    it is not itself licensed or authorized to provide such services,
    the agency or person does so only through agencies, persons or other
    entities that are licensed or authorized by the State to provide
    adoption services in that State.

This requirement addresses an agency, person or other entity that will
be providing adoption services in the placing State. However, it does
not address the need for the licensed agency within the State to be an
approved supervised provider or accredited agency.

Further, since the licensed agency in the placing State may not be the
primary provider, the requirement should read that the placing agency
works "in cooperation with" instead of "only through" the licensed
agency in the placing State.

> **Recommendation:** If it provides adoption services in a State in
> which it is not itself licensed or authorized to provide such
> services, the agency or person does so **in cooperation with**
> agencies, persons or other entities that are licensed or authorized by
> the State **and are accredited or an approved supervised provider to
> provide adoption services in that State.**

**96.33 Budget, Audit, Insurance and Risk Assessment Requirements**

-   **96.33 (b)** The agency's or person's finances are subject to
    independent annual audits.

An independent audit may be cost prohibitive, substantially raising the
cost of service to clients. This audit may be completed competently by
the accrediting entity when they review the agency's financial
statements, balance sheets, etc during the initial application and at
each review.

> **Recommendation:** The agency's or person's finances are subject to
> audit **by the accrediting entity at time of initial application and
> reviews, unless the accrediting entity requests an independent
> audit.**

-   **96.33 (e)** The agency's or person's balance sheets show that it
    operates on a sound financial basis and generally maintains
    sufficient cash reserves or other financial resources to meet its
    operating expenses for three months, taking into account its
    projected volume of cases.

This requirement will be difficult for many agencies to accomplish as
the adoption industry is based on the cooperation of foreign countries
at all times. Given that fees are related to services, this regulation
assumes that adoptions will take place at all times thereby enabling
agencies to collect fees. It does not account for the closure/suspension
of adoptions in foreign countries or other acts that might deter
families from adopting at any given time (acts of terrorism, war, etc).

> **Recommendation:** The agency's or person's balance sheets show that
> it operates on a sound financial basis and generally maintains
> sufficient cash reserves or other financial resources to meet its
> operating expenses for **two** months, taking into account its
> projected volume of cases**, closures and suspensions of adoption
> programs in foreign countries and other acts that might deter
> adoptions from taking place.**

-   **96.33 (h)** The agency or person maintains insurance in amounts
    reasonably related to its exposure to risk, including the risks of
    providing services through supervised providers, but in no case in
    an mount less than \$1,000,000 per occurrence.

Given the nature of adoption, it is extremely expensive for the agency
itself to be insured, let alone be responsible for insurance coverage
for the risk of using supervised providers. AAi has received an estimate
from our insurance carrier with a quote to be at minimum \$20,000.00 per
year (see appendix A). This estimate does not take into account coverage
for the risk of other providers associated with the adoption. For a
small agency, the cost of insurance in excess of \$20,000 per year as
well as the cost of accreditation will render many agencies inoperable.

In Texas, State law requires child-placing agencies to carry
\$300,000.00 worth of liability insurance (see appendix B).

> **Recommendation:** The agency or person maintains insurance in
> amounts reasonably related to its exposure to risk, but in no case in
> an mount less than **\$300,000** per occurrence.

**96.37 Education and Experience Requirements for Social Service
Personnel**

-   **96.37 (f)** Home studies. The agency's or person's employees who
    conduct home studies: (1) have a minimum of a master's degree from
    an accredited program of social work education or a master's degree
    in a related human service field, including, but not limited to,
    psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, counseling,
    rehabilitation counseling, or pastoral counseling; (2) are
    authorized to complete a home study under the laws of the State of
    the child's proposed residence...

This requirement unduly restricts agencies from hiring competent,
experienced professionals with a lesser degree. In many states, there
are shortages of social workers. Since the field of social work is so
vast, there is even a shortage of social workers that want to work or
specialize in the field of adoption. This requirement does not mention
any required experience in the field of adoption. A Master's degree
alone does not make one capable of conducting a quality home study for
prospective adoptive parents.

In Texas, child placing agency regulations provide a variety of
different levels of education in combination with experience in
providing home studies. Please see Appendix C for details of
requirements for the State of Texas.

Further, this requirement severely limits prospective adoptive parents
in making choices regarding home study providers.

In addition, this requirement is not stipulated for non-supervisory
employees that are expected to make clinical judgments. Also, this
requirement does not seem to apply to home study agencies that are
exempt.

Home study providers, also, should be authorized to complete a study
under the laws of the State in which the agency is licensed, not the
State of the child's proposed residence. This is an important
distinction for prospective adoptive families that may live abroad
whereby a traveling social worker completes the study but the study is
then approved (per BCIS requirements) by a licensed agency and
supervisor of the agency that is qualified to review home studies.

> **Recommendation:** Home studies. The agency's or person's employees
> who conduct home studies: (1) have a master's degree from an
> accredited program of social work education or a master's degree in a
> related human service field **and experience in family and children's
> services, adoption, international adoption or a bachelor's degree from
> an accredited program of social work education or a bachelor's in a
> related human service field and significant experience in family and
> children's services, adoption, international adoption.** (2) Are
> authorized to complete a home study under the laws of the **State in
> which the agency is licensed.**
>
> If this recommendation is not adopted, then we request that the same
> "grandfather" clause as seen in 96.37 (d) (3) be added to the
> requirements for Home study providers.

**96.38 -- Training requirements for social service personnel**

-   **96.38 (c)** The agency or person ensures that employees who
    provide adoptions related social services that involve the
    application of clinical skills and judgment also receive, in
    addition to the orientation described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of
    this section, no less than 20 hours of training each year, or more
    if required by State law, on current and emerging adoption practice
    issues through participation in seminars, conferences and other
    similar programs.

The number of yearly training hours required for agency personnel, above
and beyond the initial training, should not be specified. Further, it
should not be a requirement that the training only consist of emerging
adoption practice issues. Instead, agency personnel should be required
to fulfill whatever training hours are required by the social work
licensing board in their state or the state entity responsible for
licensing agencies. Furthermore, many states require the training hours
to be delivered by approved providers. This sometimes severely limits
the types of training offered. Trainings in the adoption field are not
as common as general social work trainings, about child development,
family dynamics, etc. All of which are not related to emerging adoption
issues but are needed in dealing with adoptive families. Requiring an
additional 20 hours of training in emerging adoption related topics
[only]{.underline} would cause many social workers to be required to
complete essentially two sets of training requirements in addition to
the orientation.

The Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners requires 15 hours of
training by approved providers in any topic related to social work. The
State licensing entity for child placing agencies requires 20-30 hours
of training in areas related to the employees job description.

> **Recommendation:** The agency or person ensures that employees who
> provide adoptions related social services, that involve the
> application of clinical skills and judgment, also receive, in addition
> to the orientation described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this
> section, **training each year as required by State law, by the social
> work licensing board in their state or the state entity responsible
> for licensing agencies, on current and emerging adoption practice
> issues; relevant child, adolescent, family issues; or other relevant
> social work training, through participation in seminars, conferences
> and other similar programs.**

In section C, we suggest that you clarify whether or not there is going
to be a requirement for training seminars and conferences to be approved
and/or accredited. If so, then please clarify which governing body will
be approving or accrediting the trainings.

**96.39 Information Disclosure and Quality Control Practices**

-   **96.39 (d)** The agency or person does not require a client or
    prospective client to sign a blanket waiver of liability in
    connection with the provision of adoption services in Convention
    cases.

It is standard business practice to outline risks associated with any
venture, especially those involving foreign countries, and require a
client to sign an acknowledgement that the business is not responsible
for actions beyond their scope. It is unrealistic to expect an agency
not to explain the risks associated with international adoption and
impart some risk onto the prospective parents. Further, if the clients
are not required to sign a waiver of liability then this will make
obtaining insurance almost impossible. Insurance companies expect that
the client bear responsibility as to whether they choose to adopt a
particular child given the risks associated with adoption.

It is impossible for an agency in the US to monitor doctors, government
officials and orphanage directors from foreign countries in order to
ensure that those parties are not imposing risk on the Convention
adoption. For instance, when an agency receives a medical report about a
child from Russia, we must accept in good faith that the lab findings
are correct, that the blood sample was not accidentally mislabeled in
the lab, that the immunizations were given using the correct amount of
serum that was not expired. If any of those situations were to happen,
the agency is not the appropriate target for responsibility. The
responsibility lies with the doctors, orphanage staff, and government
officials, or the party directly responsible for the mistake. It is
naïve to believe that by imposing this regulation that the agency has
the power, resources or influence to ensure other entities on the
periphery of the adoption are never making mistakes. Since this
regulation does not allow the agency to have any protection against
wrong doings from other entities, it will significantly drive up the
cost of adoption.

> **Recommendation:** The agency or person **may** require a client or
> prospective client to sign a blanket waiver of liability in connection
> with the provision of adoption services in Convention cases **after
> thoroughly explaining the various risks involved with international
> adoption**

**96.40 Fee Policies and Procedures**

-   **96.40 (f) (3)** It provides written receipts to the prospective
    adoptive parents for fees and expenses paid in the Convention
    country and retains copies of such receipts.

Due to cultural differences in various countries, it is not always
possible to obtain receipts for services rendered in the foreign
country. Agencies should only be expected to provide receipts for fees
the agency directly collects.

> **Recommendation:** It provides written receipts to the adoptive
> parents for fees and expenses **collected directly by the agency or
> person** in the Convention country and retains copies of such
> receipts.

**96.48 Preparation and training of prospective adoptive parent(s) in
incoming cases**

AAi supports the requirement for mandatory training in adoption related
topics for all prospective adoptive parents.

> **Recommendation:** A segment on parenting skills training should be
> added to the adoptive parent curriculum requirements

### Closing Remarks

Adoptions & Aid International supports the tenets behind the Hague
Convention on Intercountry Adoptions and the Intercountry Adoption Act
of 2000. It is important to protect the rights of children throughout
the world however in doing so, we must be careful not to impede the
adoption process to the point of a significant reduction of adoptions.
While the majority of the proposed regulations are on target in
protecting children from exploitation and trafficking, many other
regulations will render adoption agencies unable to continue providing
important adoption services. This will result in fewer agencies and
fewer choices for prospective parents. Most importantly, it will result
in far fewer adoptions.

AAi respectfully requests a thorough review of our recommendations by
the United States Department of State. We would also respectfully
request another review period for public comment before these
regulations are submitted as final and entered into force.