Dear China Families:
We have a very lengthy China program update this month, as we have lots of wonderful news to report, but there have also been substantial changes to the program that CCCWA just instituted, that will apply to both new applicants to the program whose dossiers are registered after October 1st, 2011, and to families whose dossiers are already registered who receive their travel approvals after August 1st, 2011.
March Placements
First of all, I am thrilled to announce that we had three more placements from China in the month of March. All three children were waiting children with a mild correctable special need. The children were 18 months, 23 months and 25 months at the time of placement. They were all three beautiful children, one little boy and two little girls. Heartfelt congratulations to first time parents, Brian and Jeanne on the placement of their daughter, and to first time parents, Edward and Deborah on the placement of their son. Also a huge congratulations also goes out to Tiffany and Chris and to big brothers and now world travelers: Christopher, Alex and William on the placement of their baby sister. Becki continues to do a great job carefully matching appropriate families with waiting children. Two of the families who traveled this month were grandfathered i-600 cases who waited over four years for a referral before carefully considering the waiting child program.
Pending Placements
We have four new Hague families who have been matched with waiting children through the shared list. Three of these families have received their Letters of Confirmation from CCCWA and have filed the appropriate paperwork and should be traveling to China this summer. I am also pleased to announce that Becki matched a fourth family with a child from the shared list that was just released March 21st, 2011, and this family already has their pre-approval through the web-site, but has not yet received their letter of confirmation. Keep up the good work, Becki.
Progress on Matching
CCCWA has now matched dossiers registered through 6/15/2006 with healthy child referrals. This represents 6 calendar days and 4 business days worth of matching progress. Our next dossier group to receive healthy referrals are getting closer. The next Welcome House dossier group to be matched with waiting children had dossiers that were registered on July 24th, 2006. CCCWA have also reviewed all dossiers submitted through 9/30/2010.
Announced Changes in the China Adoption Program
We have lots of changes to announce in the China program, that many of you might have seen on various adoption list-servs. First of all they have changed the name of the central adoption authority from China Centre of Adoption Affairs to China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption. Obviously, this is not a substantial change, but it does reflect a new organizational emphasis on child well-being that they wish to emphasize. Many of you may recall that Director General Zhang came to the United States last fall to discuss proposed changes in the international adoption process. This was in response to the tragic death of a three year old adopted child from China in California. All of the enacted changes below are being implemented to ensure that children are adequately protected and prospective adoptive families are carefully vetted.
Changes in the Home Study and Dossier process
All dossiers that are registered on or after October 1st, 2011 are subject to a more rigorous protocol. All home studies must be written by Hague Accredited agencies. Welcome House was already doing this. New prospective adoptive families must now complete 12 hours of pre-adoptive training instead of 10 hours, and any family adopting a special needs child or being approved for a special needs child must training specific to medical treatment, nurturing and rehabilitation of children with special needs. In addition a psychological evaluation will be required for any adoptive parent who ever received counseling, ever had a history of alcohol mis-use even if it was years ago during his or her youth , or ever had a history of abuse and neglect or suffered a traumatic loss. This psychological evaluation will be referenced in the home study and included in the dossier. The dossier will also now include three letters of reference. If the prospective adoptive family has children over 18 years of age, one of the letters of reference must be from their child. If the prospective adoptive family has school aged children, one of the letters of reference must be from a school official or teacher.
Changes in Post Placement Requirements
All families who receive their Travel Approvals after August 1st, 2011 will now be required to have six post placement visits to the home. Post placement visits will now be conducted at 1, 6, 12, 24, 36, and 60 months. If the adopted child is 14 years of age or over at the time of placement - post placement reports will be required until the child turns 18 years of age. The post placement reports at years 2, 3, and 5 must be accompanied by a medical certificate, AND an independent evaluation by your child's school or kindergarten if your child is over five years of age. Children over 10 years of age must include a short essay along the annual post placement report. All post placement reports must now be accompanied by eight photographs instead of four. If your travel approval to come to China was issued before August 1st, you are in luck. You only have to have visits at 1, 6 and 12 months after placement, and none of these more rigorous protocols apply. Families who receive their travel approval after August 1st, 2011 will have to pay for six post placement visits by their social worker instead of three visits and will be responsible for submitting the additional required documentation. Families who adopt a special needs child must fill out a special form on their implementation of their rehabilitation and nurturance plan which they previously submitted to CCCWA.
PSBI receives recognition from CCCWA
I am sure all of you saw Leonette's recent posting about PSBI receiving recognition from CCCWA. Specifically we were named one of the top 20 of 163 adoption agencies with licenses to work in the People's Republic of China. This is a great honor for us, because we are small agency with a small staff. We were specifically commended for the quality of our home studies, for submitting our post placement reports on time, and for maintaining a positive working relationship with CCCWA and complying with their regulations.
Several Housekeeping Issues
Inflationary pressures continue to be a problem in China. Specifically the value of the US dollar in relation to the RMB continues to slide. Accordingly we have had to make some adjustments in the amount of money that we wire to China on your behalf. For example the orphanage donation officially remains 35,000 RMB. However Li Li Travel, the agency with which we contract in China has been requesting $5350 since November 1st, 2011 to cover the cost of this donation. I have been faithfully wiring the higher requested amount since November 1st on your behalf and I explained the increase to other WH staff, but the higher fee unfortunately did not get reflected in the invoices were sent to the last seven families who traveled. Bottom line, the seven families who traveled since November 1st, 2011 got charged less than they should have by an amount of $120 to $150. (Some families had a $30 credit resulting in the $120 additional in charges.) A letter explaining this discrepancy is on its way to the affected families. Please feel free to call either me or Leonette if you have any questions about this adjustment in your bill. I am sorry you were not billed the higher amount initially.
Secondly, there have been lots of questions about how a government shut-down will affect international adoption. The answer is unfortunately adversely. The Hague and Non-Hague units of the NBC are considered non-critical government functions. So neither i-600 nor i-800 applications or pre-applications will be processed. It is also quite possible that visas will not be issued in country. It will depend upon the individual embassy. I will let you know more as soon as I know. Fortunately, we do not have any traveling families who will be stuck in China waiting for issuance of their child's visa, but it may delay travel. Let's hope that members of congress can work out a compromise. You can certainly write your representative and express your dis-satisfaction with the current budget impasse.
I hope you are all having a good spring. I will post again next month. Much of the information in this post will probably be repeated in the Welcome HOuse
No comments:
Post a Comment