Written by Bulgaria Child Advocate Organizations on March 7, 2018
Published on RainbowKids.com
What if RainbowKids could no longer show you the faces of children who are waiting for families?
What if one person, with all the power, believed that families interested in adopting should not be allowed to view children who are legally available for adoption?
Couched in legalese,with the invention of a new term called “soft referrals”, that is exactly what is being proposed by the person heading the Office of Children’s Issues at the US Dept of State. The idea is that no family without a homestudy should be allowed to receive information on a legally waiting child. This is completely contrary to how US Foster Adoption works for waiting children. Children waiting for adoption in the USA may be viewed by anyone visiting the national database at AdoptUsKids.org, or any of the state websites featuring waiting children in fostercare.
Under new leadership, the Office of Children’s Issues has taken radical steps to impose new fees on families wishing to adopt, crushing oversight requirements on adoption service providers, and now a vague instruction to agencies that repercussions may be implemented (retroactively!) should they fail to comply with instructions about sharing information on specific children with interested families.
How many families would adopt a child with Cerebral Palsy, had they not have first seen his or her photo? There are over FIVE HUNDRED children with CP waiting on RainbowKids. What chance do these children have of finding families if this new leadership at DOS has their way? ZERO!
Bulgarian Organizations Submit Letter to US Departement of State on Behalf of Special Needs Children:
The situation at the Office of Children’s Issues has become so dire, that 15 Bulgarian Organizations have written a letter outlining how shutting down advocacy for children with medical special needs goes against the Hague Covention. This letter was submitted this week and may be read HERE along with the full article.
