U.S. Senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have introduced the Voluntary Limited Accreditation for Adoption Services Act, a bill aimed at making it easier for American families to pursue international adoption.
According to Senator Wicker, “Today, there are thousands of children around the world who are in need of loving families and permanent homes. Unfortunately, bureaucratic red tape makes the accreditations process difficult for international adoption agencies to obtain. The one-size-fits-all accreditation standard doesn’t work for children needing stability and international agencies who facilitate the adoption process. Our bill is pro-family and puts more children in loving homes.”
Senator Klobuchar added, “Local adoption agencies help children around the world find the loving homes they deserve. But too often, families struggle to find accredited adoption service providers to assist them through the process. By creating a new pathway for providers that offer critical services like background and home studies, our bipartisan legislation ensures that families have trusted local agencies to help them navigate the adoption process and give children safe, stable homes.”
Currently, federal regulations require all organizations providing international adoption services to be accredited under a single standard. This requirement can create barriers for agencies trying to provide these services.
The proposed legislation would amend the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 by allowing agencies to seek voluntary limited accreditation specifically for conducting background studies on children in outgoing cases, performing home studies on prospective adoptive parents in incoming cases, and monitoring cases after child placement until final adoption—including preparing post-placement reports.
The full text of the legislation is available online.