U.S. Government Raises Fees

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The Washington Post released the article below on February 16.

 

Parents Adopting Children to See Higher Fees, New Rules

by David Crary

NEW YORK — The U.S. government has raised fees and made a series of regulatory changes recently for American families adopting children overseas, fueling resentment toward the State Department among agencies who fear further reductions in the already dwindling number of foreign adoptions.

The number of foreign children adopted by U.S. parents has plummeted steadily since a peak of 22,884 in 2004. The total for the 2016 fiscal year was 5,372, a decrease of more than 76 percent.

The National Council for Adoption, which represents scores of adoption agencies, is leading a campaign against the new fees. They were announced Feb. 1 as part of broader changes in how the agencies offering international adoptions undergo a required accreditation process.

Chuck Johnson, the council’s CEO, said the new policies will make adoptions too costly for many families and force agencies out of business “due to the burdensome costs of maintaining accreditation.”

The ranks of international adoption agencies in the U.S. already has dropped from more than 200 a decade ago to about 160 now.

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