Bethany Ends International Adoption Services

” Bethany Christian Services announced an end to their international adoption program. It’s a big change for the organization that has placed 15,000 children into U.S. homes through the program in the past 37 years.

“That’s why we made the decision 14 months before the accreditation expired,” said Kristi Gleason, the vice president of global programs for Bethany Christian Services. “We didn’t want to tell parents a week or a month in advance, and say ‘sorry, we can’t service you.’ We feel very strongly we can serve the families we have in process.”

Gleason says there are about 200 families in that long, and often, expensive process of international adoption. The organization will work with these families to complete the process. It will also continue post-adoption services for families.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the number of international adoptions across America has dropped dramatically over the years. In 2005, there were 22,726 adoptions, but in 2018, there were only 4,058. Gleason says this is one of the reasons the organization made the decision to end their program.
“One of our biggest country programs was Korea,” said Gleason, “We started with Korea. At the peak, we did 200-300 adoptions a year. Last year we did 85.”

Instead of the program, the organization will work with its existing programs in other countries, like Ethiopia. This decision allows it to reallocate funding and resources.

“For the cost of one inter-country adoption,” said Gleason, “the average cost for a family is $50,000 to $60,000. For that, we can serve 100 kids in Ethiopia, to have them adopted into families as well, just in their home countries.”

The programs in these countries look similar to the American foster care system. Bethany Christian Services works with local churches and governments, to find places for these children in loving families, and remove them from orphanages.

“We’ve learned a lot from the decades of doing inter-country adoption,” said Gleason, “There’s a lot of grief and loss that a child experiences when they are adopted to a new country. There’s a loss of culture, language, food, and family. So this decision is not us criticizing inter-country adoption. It’s a way of us saying, hey, if we can prevent some of that trauma, we’re going to focus on that.””

Bethany Christian Services to end international adoption

[WZZM 1/27/22 by Alana Holland]

US DOS says on February 14, 2022 “Bethany Christian Services – Accreditation Relinquishment

The Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Maintenance Entity (IAAME) notified the Department that Bethany Christian Services voluntarily relinquished its Accreditation to provide intercountry adoption services, effective February 11, 2022.

Agencies or persons that are not accredited or approved may not offer, provide, or facilitate adoption services unless they are under the supervision of an accredited or approved adoption service provider or are an exempted provider, in accordance with the regulations. When an agency or person decides not to seek renewal of its accreditation or approval, the agency or person is responsible for taking all necessary steps to complete its intercountry adoption cases and transfer its pending cases and adoption records before its accreditation or approval expires, as required by 22 CFR 96.63(a). Agencies and persons are required to have plans to transfer cases and records if they cease to provide or are no longer permitted to provide adoption services.

Families working with Bethany Christian Services should contact the agency directly with questions about case or record transfer. We also encourage families to review the information published by IAAME about selecting a primary provider/adoption service provider and the accreditation/approval requirements.

The Department of State does not review or approve case or record transfer plans and has a limited role in their execution. The Department does, however, communicate with competent adoption authorities about the accreditation status of agencies and persons and case transfer plans, as needed.

Affected families may wish to review information about Case Transfer Responsibilities on the Department of State’s website and information about If Your Agency is No Longer Accredited/Approved on the USCIS website.

We also encourage families with outstanding post-adoption reports to contact their ASP for guidance on how to proceed. Information about post-adoption reporting requirements is available on the country-specific information pages on the Department of State’s website. Requirements vary by country with respect to frequency of submission, information to be included, and methods of submission.”

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