	Intercountry Adoption Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

ICA 6: Placement

The organization identifies an adoptive family for each child, and facilitates the placement process.

NA The organization only provides homestudy and post placement services.

ICA 6.01

The organization obtains valid documentation that the child is legally free for intercountry adoption prior to placement.

Interpretation: Documentation should verify that the child is an orphan and, that full informed and lawful consent has been obtained if a parent is living.

ICA 6.02

The organization informs families about rules pertaining to citizenship for their adopted child, and facilitates the processing of paperwork to ensure the child will be authorized to enter and reside permanently in the United States.

ICA 6.03

The organization makes reasonable efforts to obtain all available medical, developmental, and social information about the child and fully discloses all information to the prospective adoptive parents.

Interpretation: Agencies must disclose to prospective adoptive parents if the information is complete or is an abstract. If abstracted, the name and credentials of the person who abstracted the information and the date is documented. When the information is not provided in English, a qualified translator is available directly or by referral to translate the information.

ICA 6.04

Prospective adoptive parents receive assistance in obtaining the services of a skilled consultant to evaluate medical and developmental information included in the referral.

Interpretation: Parents are made aware that medical, developmental, and social information from some sending countries is sometimes incomplete or inaccurate, and receive consultation directly or by referral.

ICA 6.05

Prospective adoptive parents are given sufficient time, counseling, and support to consider a child’s referral.

Interpretation: Parents should be given no less than one week to make a decision about the referral, unless extenuating circumstances involving the child’s best interest require an expedited decision.

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	PURPOSE: Intercountry Adoption Services establish a permanent family for children who cannot be cared for or adopted in their country of origin and increase the well-being of adopted individuals and adoptive families.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	CONSULTANT A person who provides specialized or technical advice or services to an organization for specific purposes on a contractual or fee basis, or who provides such services as a volunteer with an agreement to provide services on a pro bono basis.