By now, many families planning to adopt internationally have heard, somewhere along the way, discussion of “The Hague.”  Perhaps it was mentioned in your preparation classes, described casually by your social worker or maybe you read about it in an on-line forum.  It has been hard to miss in adoption news lately but perhaps we can offer a primer on what specifically The Hague means for Children’s Home Society & Family Services (CHSFS) and the families with whom we work.

The short answer is that The Hague is a multi-national agreement, formally joined by the US in 1994, which establishes standards of practice for international adoption.  Having been accredited at the highest professional level of practice for many years (through the Council on Accreditation  - COA ), CHSFS breezed through the Hague review process and required site visit and is now fully accredited by The Hague.

We, along with others in the adoption community, are hopeful this international agreement will establish clear and recognized standards for child welfare and adoption around the world and we look forward to placing children in families across the US for many years to come.

What is The Hague?

The Hague, formally known as The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, is a multi-national treaty signed by over 65 countries – including the US.  In the US, The Hague is being implemented under Federal legislation, entitled the Intercountry Adoption Act (IAA), which was passed by the US Congress and signed into law in October 2000.  Despite the long names, the goals of The Hague are quite direct: To protect the children, birthparents and adoptive parents involved in intercountry adoption and to prevent child trafficking and other abuses.

So, how will this be accomplished?  The first, large challenge for the US was to establish a central authority which would be responsible for setting procedural standards and, eventually, tracking intercountry adoption cases and statistics.  The second challenge was to identify a US entity who could accredit, support and monitor US adoption agencies.  The first challenge (establishing a central authority) has been accepted by The US Department of State and the second challenge  (identification of an accrediting entity) has been accepted by The Council on Accreditation (COA) and the State of Colorado.  Given that CHSFS is licensed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa (and not Colorado), we worked closely with COA to complete our Hague accreditation.

What is the timing for CHSFS?

In that CHSFS oversees several aspects of the international adoption process (preparation of adoption studies, termination of parental rights, establishment of a child’s status, non-judicial determination of a child’s best interest, provision of guardianship in non-finalized placements….), it was necessary for us to become fully accredited.  In November 2006, CHSFS formally applied to COA for Hague accreditation .  Our site visit occured in November 2007 and we received notification of our full Hague accreditation in February 2008.  With on-going support and review, CHSFS Hague accreditation is in place for several years to come. 

How difficult is the accreditation process? 

The Hague is new to the field of international adoption and, like most US agencies going through this process, we had plenty of questions.  However, for the past 30 some years, CHSFS has been fully recognized by COA as meeting the highest practice standards described for family and children's services.  In our profession, the regular, voluntary COA accreditation process has come to be recognized as the family services “seal of good housekeeping."  While Hague-specific accreditation is a bit different than regular COA accreditation process, many aspects of each overlap and we have a good handle on much of the process.

How will this affect adopting parents?

Families already in process (particularly those with a completed adoption study and in the dossier preparation phase or beyond) should experience little change in their process assuming everything goes as planned.  Recently, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) declared that families who have formally submitted their I-600 or I-600A by the date the US shares the names of accredited agencies with The Hague, will follow the old system.  In other words, if you applied to the CIS with your I-600 or I-600A prior to April 1, 2008 (the date the US became "fully implemented" with the Hague), your process will continue under the old rules.  Families applying to the CIS after this date, will proceed under the new regulations.

(The Guatemala program offers some interesting dilemmas to this puzzle and I understand that Argerie Diaz-White has been keeping her families up-to-date.  The main challenge is that Guatemala has been operating, for years, in a very de-centralized manner.  Independent attorneys and their representatives, who have facilitated adoptions in Guatemala for many years, want to be sure safeguards are built into the internal Guatemala system before they willingly agree to be monitored by a yet-to-be named Guatemalan central authority.  This transition, decentralized to centralized, may take some time to work out and the path is still unclear.  Because of this, CHSFS has temporarily stopped accepting applications for our Guatemala program.  The medium-range future of Guatemala is currently too unclear to risk starting a new adoption process.  Please keep your eyes on the CHSFS Guatemala page for updates as they occur.) 

Fortunately, CHSFS had been gearing up for Hague accreditation for quite some time and had many pieces already in place.  For example, families in our direct services area (with a CHSFS adoption study) have, at a minimum, already attended our Pre-Adoptive Classes (PAC) which accounts for 16 hours of education – six hours more than The Hague requires.  Families working cooperatively with CHSFS have received a copy of With Eyes Wide Open and have signed an agreement acknowledging a minimum of ten hours of pre-adoptive preparation through a combination of classes offered by a local adoption study provider and independent study. 

(If you would like additional adoption food for thought or are simply curious to see what other adoption preparation courses are out there, feel free to visit www.adoptionlearningpartners.org where you will find adoption courses appropriate for all kinds of adoptions.  The courses are free of charge unless you need a certificate of completion which is available for a minimal charge.)

What will The Hague mean for families considering adoption in the future?

Now that the US is fully compliant with The Hague, agencies and governmental entities (Department of State and the Citizenship and Immigration Service)  have new guidelines to follow – many of which are based on the current understanding of “best practice” – something CHSFS has been practicing for years.  With these new guidelines in place, children and families around the world have more safeguards built in to the adoption process – examples of which include: a child’s eligibility being formally established prior to referral; a family’s “approval” being recognized and formally accepted for a particular program; the assessment and matching process being open and honored by both countries.

While The Hague may result in a bit more documentation and some procedural changes, please keep in mind that it is all in an effort to protect children, families and the system – something all of us can support. 

CHSFS has been finding and preparing families for children for more than 100 years.  Over that time we have encountered and incorporated change on an almost continuous basis.  The Hague forces the entire adoption community to look closely at our practice of “doing” adoption --  and CHSFS is up to the challenge.   We believe the end result of The Hague will be of benefit to children and families –  both here in the US and around the world.

More information:

As always, feel free to contact your CHSFS specialist or social worker for more information on your specific situation.  And, for more information on The Hague and its US implementation, feel free to visit the following sites:

The Hague Convention:

http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=conventions.text&cid=69

Intercountry Adoption Act:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=106_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ279.106.pdf