Adoption Reform Idea: Applying International Business Standards to International Adoption Process

It became clear to me in reading about international business standards, that several ideas could be applied to improve ethics and protect adoptive parents in the international adoption process.

Here are the ideas that stem from international business standards:

(1)Be required to have a facilitator code of conduct. This would apply to ALL people that the agency deals with overseas. The PAP would have to read that and acknowledge that they read it before signing contract.

(2) Mandatory annual agency-paid-for audit overseas. The agency would be required to physically audit the overseas locations yearly and stick to a standardized report that  the Department of State, COA and potential clients and clients would have access to. This would need to be shared with state licensing authorities as well.

(3)This audit would turn into the mandatory Facilitator Responsibility Annual Report that would be mandatory to make publicly available. The PAP would have to read that and acknowledge that they read it before signing contract. Any issues found would have to be resolved and adoptions in progress would need to be on hold until fixed.

(4) New, pilot programs would have to have similar audit checklist and code of conduct prior to opening a program and it would have to be mandatory to publish to the general public and before being allowed to sign on clients.

(5) Penalties for lying on reports should include license pulling and banning of agency.

REFORM Puzzle Piece