“A bill to modify the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 to provide a limited accreditation option for performing certain adoption services.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states the sense of Congress that (1) prospective adoptive parents should receive high-quality services from experienced providers for child background studies, home studies, and post-placement reports; (2) the number of accredited adoption service providers is declining in the United States, leading to fewer options; (3) some foreign countries, primary providers, and adoptive families prefer that only accredited providers conduct intercountry home studies and post-placement reporting, if required; (4) accreditation ensures compliance with standards through oversight, enforcement, and data collection; and (5) U.S. intercountry adoption practices can be enhanced by a new limited accreditation option for background studies, home studies, or post-placement reports, in addition to comprehensive accreditation for primary providers.
This section amends the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, which implements the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, to (1) define "limited accreditation" as voluntary accreditation for agencies limited to providing one or more of the following adoption services in Convention cases: background studies on children in outgoing cases (i.e., U.S. children adopted abroad), home studies on prospective adoptive parents in incoming cases (i.e., foreign children adopted by U.S. citizens), or post-placement monitoring until final adoption; (2) expand the definition of "accredited agency" to include agencies with limited accreditation; and (3) authorize accrediting entities to grant accreditation or limited accreditation to agencies (with applicants specifying full accreditation as an accredited agency/approved person or limited accreditation), including under the Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012. The section also exempts the revised accreditation provision from the Paperwork Reduction Act.
This section establishes rules of construction clarifying that (1) the Act and its amendments do not require intercountry adoption service providers to hold limited accreditation (as defined in section 3(13) of the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000) to provide home studies on prospective adoptive parents pursuing intercountry adoptions, and (2) the Act and its amendments do not modify the definition of "adoption service" under that Act (42 U.S.C. 14902).