On February 7 & 8, join the adoption community in advocating for affordable intercountry adoptions.
Help all of us protect the right to provide every parent and every child a chance to be a family. Every child deserves a chance to feel loved and safe.
It is time for the adoption community to take action about the decline of intercountry adoption.
If the trend continues, intercountry adoptions will reach Zero in 4 years.
The new adoption agency accrediting entity, IAAME, set their budget based on a decline 20% from the previous year. Adoptions have declined by at least 1,000 cases every year since 2004. In 2016, there were only 5,200 adoptions. If the 1,000 per-year decline trend continues, intercountry adoptions will reach zero in just 4 years.
Take action to voice concern
The National Council for Adoption is asking you to call your Senators and Congressmen to voice concern about the changes in intercountry adoption. See http://www.adoptioncouncil.org/intercountry-advocacy for more information about the Feb 7-8 call in day to the media, congress, the small business administration, and the media.
$500 Monitoring fee per adopted child
With new Dept of State regulations, families can expect to pay $500 extra per child they expect to adopt. This is a mandatory oversight fee that takes effect Feb 15, 2018. Adoption agency clients should expect fee schedules to change soon and reflect these new charges. Read more here.
Survey of adoption agencies shows bleak future
In 2006, there were 255 Hague accredited adoption agencies. In 2017, there were only 167. On average, one adoption agency per month goes out of business or loses or forfeits its accreditation. If the trend of one agency per month continues, one would conclude that there will be no Hague accredited adoption agencies left in 13 years. However, a recent survey of Hague adoption agencies shows a much bleaker future. Given the escalating regulations and more than tripling of accreditation fees, one-half of the Hague accredited adoption agencies surveyed indicated that they do not plan to seek accreditation at all with IAAME. This means they will either stop providing international adoption services or will merge with another agency that does.
Accreditation Budget increases by 1700%
The budget for COA, the previous accrediting entity for adoption agencies, was about $170,000 per year. With new government regulation, the budget for IAAME, the new accrediting entity, will be $3.5 Million dollars. Obviously, all of this cost will be passed on to adoptive families, representing at least $1,000 – $2,000 per family.
Increasing Adoptions
See more about these efforts at www.saveadoptions.org.
Please take action to help save intercountry adoption.