Russia Reaccreditation
Answers to your questions
I keep hearing all this stuff about reaccreditation. What exactly is it?
Every agency that works to facilitate adoptions in Russia must be “accredited” (licensed) to work there. Every year the Russian government evaluates the agency and issues a reaccreditation certificate allowing that agency to continue to facilitate adoptions in their country.
I have never heard about reaccreditation before. Why is it such a big deal now?
For the first time since being accredited in 2001, AAI had to wait for our reaccreditation status. During that one year period we were not able to unite Russian children with their adoptive parents.
Was AAI the only agency that had to wait?
No. The wait for accreditation was global. Every U.S. agency, and those in Canada and Europe, also had to wait some period of time.
What happened to cause the wait?
In 2005, several high profile stories were publicized regarding deaths of Russian orphans adopted internationally by U.S. Citizens. Prior to these cases, the adoption system had not been widely discussed in Russia. Russian citizens began to hear these stories and wonder what was going on. Why were these children dying? “This shook Russian society,” said AAI Russia Program Director Alla Goncharova. “The government knew something had to be done.” So the Russian government began to carefully and meticulously evaluate their adoption processes and those of the adoption agencies that were working in their country. The problems revolved around faulty post-placement reports and weak screening guidelines for adoptive parents. “There was a huge investigation,” says Goncharova. “As a Russian citizen I am glad that all these things were brought to light because many good changes are being made.” AAI Russia Consultant Chandra Doorn commented, “Russia did what was natural and what they should do to protect the orphans.”
What, if any, new changes will we see?
In Russia, new policies have been implemented regarding the support of pregnant women, a foster care system has been created, and stricter guidelines for international adoption have been put in place. Some agencies who were not up to par with Russia’s standards lost their accreditation status, but AAI was NOT one of those agencies. On March 1, 2006, AAI received reaccreditation and we are again facilitating adoptions in Russia as normal.
Because AAI is always striving to improve our services in order to always protect children and families, we have also made some new, positive changes to our international adoption requirements. We have added new educational requirements for families prior to adoption, new requirements for post-placement, even more screening for prospective parents, and new transracial and transcultural adoption training. We will continue to strive to provide even more excellent cultural and educational opportunities and support for families after placement as well.
Why is now a good time to sign up?
When you submit a Preliminary Application for our Russia Program between March 6, 2006 and March 31, 2006* you will receive a certificate which will waive your $350.00 Formal Application Fee for the Russia Program.
*This fee waiver only applies to Preliminary Applications received between March 6, 2006 and March 31, 2006, does not apply to current waiting families, is not retroactive, and applies only to the Russia program.
More Information
If you have any questions regarding reaccreditation or international adoption, please feel free to call us at 616.667.0921 or toll-free at 800.677.2367.
