 We are incredibly excited to announce that on February 29, 2008,
we received Hague Accreditation through the
Council on Accreditation (COA). This accredition will allow us to continue our mission of
Finding Families for All of God's Children.
View our accreditation certificate.
As a Hague Accredited Agency, we are required to provide certain specific information to
clients upon initial contact. In order to maintain compliance with the Intercountry Adoption
Act and Hague Regulations we are providing all prospective clients the following information:
Hague Required Disclosures
Complaint Policy - Found within the Preliminary Information Booklet. This will again be provided
to clients with the Agency Business Agreement. It is also available online. The Hague
Convention on International Adoption Complaint Registry can be found on the Department of
States Website.
 Domestic Supervised Providers - According to the Hague Regulations, we are obligated to disclose
to you any domestic (within the US) supervised providers that we use and you will in turn be
working with directly or indirectly when adopting from a country that is a part of the
Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoptions. KAS works with the following countries that are
considered part of the Hague: Hong Kong,
Burkina Faso,
and El Salvador. Currently we accept home
studies from a number of agencies within the United States. These agencies may be considered
by our agency to be either Exempt Providers or Supervised Providers based on the services
they are providing and at our discretion. It is impossible to list every agency in the US from
whom we would accept a home study. We will NOT accept a home study from all agencies though,
so before committing to a home study agency it is important that you discuss this with KAS.
Some (but not all) of the things we will be looking at when deciding on whether or not to
accept a home study are as follows:
- Is the agency Hague Accredited or pursuing Hague Accreditation?
- Is the agency licensed and non-profit?
- What is the agency's general reputation?
- Is the agency willing to sign an agreement with us attesting to their compliance with Hague standards?
- Is the agency a member of JCICS and/or other professional organizations?
- How many years has the agency been in business?
We will also be requiring that any agency we utilize as a Supervised Provider or an Exempt Provider be licensed,
non-profit and carry professional liability insurance.
Foreign Supervised Providers - According to the Hague regulations we are obligated to
disclose to you any foreign supervised providers that we use and that will in turn work
with directly or indirectly when adopting from a country that is a part of the Hague
Treaty on Intercountry Adoption. ABI works with the following countries that are
considered part of the Hague: Hong Kong
, Burkina Faso,
and El Salvador.
In El Salvador, ABI works with various licensed attorneys and licensed
orphanages for the provision of adoption services. Referrals are made and approved by OPA,
the El Salvador government office for Adoptions. Additional specific information is
available once a family has submitted a Preliminary Application and been approved.
The specific identities of KAS foreign supervise providers will only be provided to the
general public should the person inquiring have a reasonable rationale for requesting
this information, as determined by the Executive Director.
Sample Contracts - Families are required to sign a Waiver of Liability
and a Business Agreement when starting to work with KAS. At the time of referral
acceptance families must sign a Statement of Acceptance and Responsibility.
Samples of all of these documents are available at the top of this page. The
samples are substantially like the documents you will be required to sign. Hard
copies of each of these samples are available upon request.
Number of Adoptions - The following information is available upon request: the number of
adoptions completed per year for the past three years, and the number of these placements
and percentage that are disrupted or have been dissolved. (KAS purchased a data tracking
system in 2007 to assist with tracking all of this information. Specific Information
requested for years prior to 2006 may be estimates.)
Number of Applicants - The following information is available upon request: the number of
applicants who apply to adopt yearly. (KAS purchased a data tracking system in 2007 to
assist with tracking all of this information. Specific Information requested for years
prior to 2006 may be estimates.)
Number of Children Eligible for Adoption - It is impossible for KAS to
predict the number of children eligible for adoption in either the US or foreign countries.
There are various estimates on the number of orphans in the world, many of whom are not
necessarily eligible for adoption. There are an unfathomable number of children for whom
adoption would present an opportunity for a loving and nurturing family. It is
possible to look on the
State Department website to
explore the number of children issued adoption related immigrant visa to enter the US on
a year-by-year basis.
Upon request KAS will disclose the current number of waiting children we are aware of as
being eligible for adoption through our agency for each country where we work.
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