Children's Hope International was under review for accreditation from the Hague Convention (international adoption rules/standards -- click on the title above for more information on the Hague Adoption Convention). Their accreditation was denied based on the discovery made last year of improper procedures done by two staff in the Russia program in the St. Louis office. There was a misuse of Notary privileges and mishandled paperwork to Russia.
Their investigation last summer found that 10 documents in 6 states were affected and they began the process of notifying those states and undertaking any review of their license that those states deemed necessary. Except for two states, Kansas and Illinois, this license review process was complete within 3 months. They continued to work with Kansas and Illinois to follow any requirement they thought necessary. Children's Hope believed that all requirements had been met in Kansas were still waiting for Illinois to finalize what turned out to be a 9 month process. Therefore, they could not meet all the Hague requirements in the first round of approvals for the Hague on February 29, 2008, so Children's Hope was issued a "Pending Status" from the Hague Commission.
When Illinois finalized their corrective actions and issued CHI's new permanent 4 year license in June, they immediately applied for Hague approval. They reviewed CHI's case on July 9th. On the same day, they found out through their new KS Office Director that they were not in compliance in all points as they had thought. This meant - as they found out on July 17, 2008, that their Hague approval was denied!
The problem, as crazy as it seems, is that they were deemed non-compliant to the regulations required for domestic adoption agency licensing in the state of Kansas, even though they are not a domestic – but international - adoption agency. In an international agency, for example, it is impossible for the social worker to visit the child before it is placed, which is one of the regulations. They had already instituted what they thought were all the requirements of the state. Talk about miscommunication!
They've immediately begun talks with the Kansas officials to resolve any licensing issues so they can re-apply to the Council on Accreditation (COA) for Hague Accreditation within the next few weeks. But it is the discretion of COA to schedule their application for review, or make them wait up to one year before re-applying.
They are also talking with Holt International http://www.holtinternational.org/ about how they can work under and through them to assist any families in application and those whose dossiers have not been submitted – and that possibility looks very positive.
Our dossier has been submitted and we have a current I171-H form with one free extension still. I will submit the paperwork to be granted the extension soon (Ours expires in December). My hope now is that we are able to receive a referral before the extension expires. If not, we may have to work with Holt as well.
They said this road would be bumpy.
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