Wasatch International Adoptions

A Child's Way Home

Date: October 15, 2003

To: Jessica Rosenbaum, Department of State

From: Kathleen Kaiser, Executive Director, Wasatch Int\'l Adoptions

Regarding: Proposed Hague Convention Regulations

Dear Ms. Rosenbaum:

I am the Executive Director of an international adoption agency with an
office here in Ogden, Utah. We have been licensed since 1997 and have
assisted hundreds of families who have adopted children from foreign
countries. We have prided ourselves on the ethical and careful way our
agency works with both the adoptive families and the representatives we
work with in the foreign countries. We have just finished a rigorous
accreditation process with the Council on Accreditation and are the only
agency in the State of Utah that has gone through this accreditation.

I am writing to you now because those of us working in small agencies
feel that the Federal Government is working hard to institute new
regulations that will most certainly put our agency out of business.
With the passage of The Hague Convention Treaty in the U.S. the federal
government has now published their recommendations for the regulations
adoption agencies will be required to comply with in the near future.
From the time the United States signed the Hague Convention Treaty until
the publication of these regulations, we were assured that the
regulations would be reasonable and do-able for all agencies. We were
also encouraged by many different entities to voluntarily begin the
accreditation process with the Council on Accreditation and we were
assured that this would give us a real head start in being able to
comply with the federal regulations. Since these regulations were
published, it is now clear, to most small agencies, that we will be
unable to comply with these regulations and stay in business. We were
promised, from the beginning, that the federal regulations would not
supersede state requirements, but it appears that most state
requirements are superseded in most instances.

I would like to outline some of the real problematic issues that all
small and medium sized agencies are worried about:

1.  Accreditation. Our agency spent approximately 2 years and close to
    \$100,000 to go through the voluntary accreditation process with
    COA. We were encouraged to do this by Joint Council on International
    Children\'s Issues and agencies were promised it would give us a leg
    up on complying with federal regulations. Now, we are told that
    those of us who went through this voluntary accreditation will have
    to re-accredit and the voluntary accreditation is not valid. This 2
    year, very expensive process, hurt us financially and took much of
    our precious time, but we did it. How can the federal government now
    take the stance that this is not sufficient? This is incredible!
    There is no way that our agency can afford to go through another
    accreditation process. It costs thousands and thousands of dollars
    and it seems that it is totally unreasonable when we have already
    voluntarily completed one accreditation.

> 3755 Washington Blvd., Suite 2B -- Ogden, Utah 84403 -- (801)334-8683
>
> Fax (801) 334-0988 -- Email: <info@wiaa.org> - Website: www.wiaa.org

2.  To be approved by the federal government to continue in the business
    of providing adoption services, all Executive Directors will have to
    be credentialed. I have worked in the international adoption field
    for 10 years, and have successfully run this agency since 1997. We
    are stable, we are successful, and we have never had a complaint
    against us. It is ludicrous to think that only credentialed people
    can perform these duties. Ten years of experience in the field of
    international adoption and successfully running this agency since
    1997 should be credentials enough.

3.  The federal government will also require agencies have a substantial
    financial reserve set aside. There are no small or medium sized
    agencies that can afford to do this. We are all non-profit agencies,
    and although we are financially secure and follow sound financial
    practices, we cannot afford to set aside \$50 to \$100 thousand
    dollars of our operating costs. This requirement alone will put most
    small and medium sized agencies out of business.

4.  The federal government will mandate that all agencies have
    supervisory responsibility over the lawyers and facilitators we work
    with in the foreign countries. We do not work with one facilitator
    and/or lawyer in a foreign country that would even consider being
    \"supervised\" by us. We and they consider ourselves as partners in
    this adoption process. They are regulated to a great extent by their
    own governments and to ask them to be an employee of our agency is
    insulting. All agencies realize that unless they use reputable
    foreign agents they are not going to stay in business. This is
    something that we can take care of ourselves without the
    interference of the federal government. And, I cannot imagine that
    any foreign facilitator or lawyer will accept this mandate.

It does not seem fair or reasonable that large adoption agencies will
grow more wealthy because they are able to afford to comply with these
regulations while other smaller and medium sized agencies will be forced
out of the industry. In spite of the lip service paid over the years
that the Hague Treaty was good for children and adoptive families, it is
obviously a disaster. Right now Wasatch Adoptions employee 8 people. Two
of these people support their families with the money they earn working
here. The remaining people use the money they earn to supplement their
family\'s income for essentials such as food, clothing, rent, etc. To
have the federal government willingly and knowingly close good and
reputable business because of regulations that all involved were
promised would be reasonable and easy to implement is wicked. I am
asking that you intervene on behalf of the good and reputable adoption
agencies here in your state, and ask that these regulations be looked at
again and re-done so that small businesses can stay in business. I
believe that if you were to understand how upset and angry most
international adoption agencies are, you would do your best to stop
these regulations from being implemented. If you have not read through
these regulations, I suggest that you do so. I have mentioned only a
very few of the problems, but when you read through them you will
realize that these regulations are unreasonable and most agencies cannot
comply with them. Thank you for your time and help with this issue. I
cannot believe that anyone would want business harmed by their own
government, which is what the implementation of these regulations would
do to all small agencies in the U.S.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Kaiser, Executive Director

Wasatch International Adoptions