Florida Moves to Shut Down Adoption by Shepherd Care-A Domestic and Colombian Adoption Agency UPDATED

Though this agency has placed children from China, Guatemala, Russia and Moldova in the past, they currently facilitate domestic adoptions and Colombian adoptions.

The state probe has focused on domestic adoption coercion.  “The U.S. State Department has received no complaints about Shepherd Care’s international efforts in the past three years.

Records obtained by the Sun Sentinel, however, show repeated and growing concerns about Shepherd Care on the part of state regulators, which have culminated in the state’s current attempt to force it to cease operations.

“Allegations involving this agency have continued to escalate over the past three years,” DCF wrote in its complaint, filed March 19 with the state Division of Administrative Hearings. One recurring worry for state officials: Shepherd Care’s alleged missteps in the delicate task of procuring children for adoption from young, sometimes unsophisticated mothers.

The agency is accused by Florida regulators of failing to protect at least one non-English speaking birth mother’s civil rights by not providing her with a translator, a proper counselor and an attorney of her own, and by having her sign adoption-related paperwork at an “incomprehensible” rapid pace.

It is also accused by state regulators of falling short in efforts to locate or fully advise two potential birth fathers of their rights to claim paternity and contest the adoption.”

“Adoption by Shepherd Care proudly declares, more than 5,000 boys and girls have found loving homes.

But, in a rare action, the state Department of Children & Families is now trying to shut down the agency, accusing it of a pattern of abuses, including on at least one occasion, pressuring a birth mother into giving up her infant twin sons, and not doing enough to safeguard the interests of two men whose offspring may have been put up for adoption.”

“In a petition filed April 19 to dismiss the state’s action, the adoption agency’s attorney, Alexander Brown, said, “Shepherd has done nothing wrong.”

“A two-day administrative hearing on the merits of the state’s case is scheduled in Fort Lauderdale beginning on June 15. A definite decision on Shepherd Care’s status could be months away. Either side could appeal the ruling of the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings to the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal.

DCF last shuttered an adoption agency in Broward County in 2006. Nearly a decade ago, the state famously forced the closure of a Jacksonville agency, Tedi Bear Adoptions, that had offered the same Vietnamese children to more than one family.”

“Controversy has touched Adoption by Shepherd Care in the past, too.

Under prior management, it had the unfortunate distinction of placing 20 foster children for adoption in the home of a Gainesville woman, Nellie Johnson, who beat and terrorized them. Johnson was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

In recent years, records show, Shepherd Care has faced other difficult situations, including the case of a 9-year-old boy with behavioral problems whose adoptive family gave him back; a lawsuit involving a birth mother who physically attacked the adoptive parents’ attorney during a deposition; and a bitter dispute over billings to a Seminole County couple who ended up cutting the agency out of the adoption process and dealing directly with the birth mother and her lawyer.

The couple had complained to DCF in 2008 about Shepherd Care’s charges, saying they were billed for rent and utilities for days the birth mother was not living in housing provided by the adoption agency. They disputed other charges, including $500 to apply to Medicaid for the baby, $285 for a new mattress, $300 for an unreimbursed security deposit, and $120 for the birth father to paint the adoption agency’s office.

In court records, Shepherd Care defended the charges, saying the birth parents and an older child had ruined the mattress and left the apartment in poor condition, and the birth father never painted the room but used the money to buy groceries.

DCF reviewed the matter and concluded that the charges were “reasonable” but that the agency’s bookkeeping was “archaic” and employed handwritten ledgers that “were not reader friendly.”

Last year, as a “corrective action,” DCF ordered Shepherd Care to start submitting its bills for state review before presenting them to the courts for approval as part of the legal process of adoption.

“We’ve sent every single one and there have been no comments back,” Joseph Sica told the Sun Sentinel.”

State moves to shut down Hollywood adoption agency
[Sun-Sentinel 6/3/11 by Megan O’Matz]

Update 6/6/11: Hope Adoption Services of British Columbia, Canada uses Adoption by Shepherd Care for their intercountry adoptions from US.

“Adopting from the United States is in some respects, similar to a domestic adoption in Canada and offers B.C families the likelihood of a transracial adoption. As in local adoption, the children available are very close to newborn age, the applicants will be chosen in most cases by the birthmother, and the opportunity for openness is present. Although in close proximity, the United States is still considered an international adoption and requires the same Immigration process as any other foreign country.

Most children coming from the U.S. are of African American descent and many families participate in the large and active group of adoptive parents who form the “Afro-Canadian Adoption Network” (ACAN). For more information on ACAN contact the Adoptive families Association at 604 320-7330.

For a number of years adopting in the USA has been one of the most popular choices for our clients. It is one of the few options for adopting a newborn infant. After the USA ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption on April 1, 2008, there was a great deal of uncertainty about if and how this could continue. We are pleased to say that this has now been favourably resolved.

One of the principles in the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption is that reasonable efforts must be made to find a family for children within their home country before they are eligible for foreign adoption. The US authorities have recently clarified that there is an exception for situations in which birth parents have personally chosen to place a child with a particular foreign family.

Some features of the process now will be:

1. The birth parents must choose the adopting parents. Agency staff cannot do this.
2. A judge in the USA must issue an order permitting the child to leave the country for the purpose of adoption.
3. An adoption agency accredited by the Hague Central Authority in the US must consent to the foreign adoption placement.
4. The Hague Central Authority in B.C. must agree to the adoption and issue a Notification of Agreement to Immigration Canada.

Eligibility Requirements – Florida

Married couples whose average age does not exceed 50 years and neither spouse is older than 52.

Children Available

Mostly newborns, up to approximately 6 weeks of age, are available through Adoption by Shepherd Care in Florida. Children are generally of African American or mixed race heritage. Background risk factors will depend on the individual birthparents involved. The availability of toxicology reports, HIV and hepatitis testing varies. The agency will inform you directly of the particulars for your case.

Waiting Period

Similar to domestic adoption, birth parents will be choosing the adoptive parents through their Dear Birthparent letters, photos and family profiles and therefore the waiting period is impossible to predict. It has been our experience that for some families, it may only be several months or less before a birthparent chooses their profile and yet for others, it can take much longer.

Summary of Process

For detailed process information, please refer to separate form: “Overview of Steps for Florida, USA Adoption”.

• Make application to Hope Services and fulfill BC requirements for legal adoption
• Contact Adoption by Shepherd Care in Hollywood, Florida and complete their application process: Telephone- 954-981-2060 “

Hope Adoption Services Website US Adoption Description

Update 2: Journalist Erin Siegal has obtained FOIA documents for Adoptions by Shepherd Care (ASC). You can view them at her website here.

In the first document, the agency is accused of withholding counseling AND “monies promised to the birthmother” in a November 2010 complaint. Coercion, inappopriate legal counsel referral in the woman’s native language and preventing potential birthfathers from reviewing disclosures or obtaining legal counsel is alleged.

The second and third documents discuss accusations that ASC withheld medical and educational information and failed to assist the  adoptive parents in obtaining postadoption subsidies and care.

Choose Life License Plate Money

Interestingly, in December 2010 ASC applied to get Choose Life license plate monies to distribute to birhtmothers. Palm Beach County  Board of County Commissioners approved a contract with ASC on February 15, 2011 “totaling $95,000 for the period October 1, 2010 tohrough September 30, 2011 providing services in accordance with the “Choose Life” license plate funds statutory intent. ” They are allowed to distribute this money for clothing, housing, medical care, food, and other living costs for pregnant women according to the meeting minutes pasted below:

Page 14 of the Palm Beach County Meeting Agenda contains the contract with ASC. They admit that 70% of the $95,000 will go towards pregnant women’s expenses.

Finally, an article from 2004 discusses where ASC places most of their black infants…Canada.

“But the US is now the fourth largest “supplier” of babies for adoption to Canada. Adoption by Shepherd Care, an agency in Hollywood, Fla., places 90 percent of its African-American babies in Canada. One-third of the children placed through Adoption-Link in Chicago, which specializes in adoptions for black babies, go to people from other countries.”

“”The families from abroad do not think of black babies as being second best, babies that they’ll ‘settle’ for because white babies are hard to find,” says Ms. Kinnaird.

Most adoption agencies encourage the birth mother to select the adoptive family for her child. Sometimes a black birth mother prefers having her child adopted overseas because she believes there is less prejudice there than in the US.

“Some birth mothers view placing their child abroad as a way for them to have a better life with less struggle,” says Joe Sica of Shepherd Care in Hollywood, Fla.”

Born in America, adopted abroad
[The Christian Science Monitor 10/27/04 by Dawn Davenport]

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