Is It Time To Panic?

There’s been a lot of buzz in the last week or so about a hike in adoption costs coming from the State Department.  Some reports are claiming the new fees will cost agencies hundreds of thousands of dollars and cause some to go out of business.  They also warn that people will be priced out of adoption and/or that adoptions in general are going to end.  In other words, it sounds rather like the sky is falling.

Is it?

There has been a shake up in Accrediting Entities and there is a new fee structure coming online in the next couple of months.  But in a nutshell, the simple answer is “No, the sky is not falling.  In fact, many agencies are likely to see a decrease in costs.  So why the panic?

It comes down to a new emphasis on Monitoring and Oversight.  Basically, in the past the Accrediting Agency (COA) did the bulk of their review and assessment of an agency once every four years when their accreditation came up for renewal.  They only took a closer look if complaints or problems were significant enough to raise flags.  Unfortunately, this meant that some issues went unaddressed or simmered for a long time before causing massive problems. A number of agencies, including a couple of very large adoption providers, were debarred leaving families caught up mid-adoption.  Multiple countries ”“ including a few of the biggest adoption programs ”“ closed because they lost confidence in the US government’s ability to oversee agencies and protect children.  The number of intercountry adoptions to the US went down by 75% between 2006 and 2016.

Under the revised structure, Monitoring and Oversight (M&O) is in a category of its own and is a much higher priority.  The new Accrediting Entity, IAAME, realized that COA’s model of only 4 employees and most oversight done by volunteers was not going to work.  Instead they will have 20 full time employees who are trained and can give a consistent level of oversight to all agencies.  Twenty employees cost more than four.  Thus, under the new structure, each agency will be charged $500 per case for Monitoring and Oversight.  This fee will likely be passed on to their clients.  So in truth the cost to agencies will be no higher than in the past, and for clients it’s an increase of approximately 1.4% of the total cost of their adoption.

Here’s a very brief explanation of where that $500 is going*:

• Routine and regular monitoring of agencies and their overseas contractors, to verify they are following all established policies and procedures.
• Examination of agencies’ financial operations and solvency to ensure that an agency will not suddenly declare bankruptcy and close its doors, leaving families in the lurch and out thousands of dollars.
• Timely and efficient reviews of complaints and monitoring of the corrective actions taken.

The potential benefits of these changes to the system cannot be overstated.  Let’s take it out of legalese for a moment and talk parent to parent here.  What this means is that there will finally be someone holding agencies accountable for all that is happening behind the scenes, financially, as well as ethically.  It means an end to agencies throwing up their hands and saying “we didn’t know when it comes out that unscrupulous agents in a developing country were lying to birth families in order to coerce them to give up their children.  Let me spell that out even more clearly: Children could be saved from being trafficked.  Families saved from unbearable heartache.  The heartache of losing a child; the heartache of bringing home a child only to find out that child was taken illegally and wants nothing more than to go home.  That’s not just a nice reassurance for families ”“ it may be what keeps current adoption programs open or even paves the way for the launching of new (or currently closed) programs.  In other words, it has the potential to increase the number of adoptions overall.

The sky is most definitely not falling.  From where I stand, the clouds are clearing and the sun is peeking through.  We have asked our government for years to provide the kind of oversight that would truly protect children and families.  Now that they are being responsive to those cries, we should be cheering, not writing angry letters to congress asking them to step in.  Change is always uncomfortable but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good.  Give this new system a chance.  If your agency is panicking and asking you to write angry letters to congress, pause and ask yourself, what are they afraid of?  If our goal is truly to put children first, then we should be willing to sacrifice a little to see that goal achieved.  It may be the best $500 any of us has ever spent.

 

* This is a simplified version of the breakdown published by the State Department here.