42 U.S.C. § 14923 — Standards and procedures for providing accreditation or approval

(a) In general. (1) Promulgation of regulations. The Secretary must, by regulation, set the standards and procedures accrediting entities use to accredit agencies and approve individuals to provide adoption services for Convention adoptions. (2) Consideration of views. In writing these regulations, the Secretary must consider standards or procedures proposed by, and the views of, people and groups with expertise in international adoption and family social services, including public and private groups experienced in licensing and accrediting adoption agencies. (3) Applicability of notice and comment rules. The Secretary must follow the standard public notice-and-comment process — subsections (b), (c), and (d) of section 553 of Title 5 — when developing and issuing these regulations. (b) Minimum requirements. (1) Accreditation. An agency cannot be accredited, or stay accredited, unless it meets all of these requirements: (A) Specific requirements — (i) the agency gives prospective parents a copy of the child's medical records, translated into English as fully as practical, no later than two weeks before the adoption or before the parents travel abroad to finish it, whichever is earlier; (ii) the agency makes sure a full background report (home study) on the prospective parents — including a criminal background check and all facts relevant to their eligibility under the child's home-country rules — is completed and sent to the Attorney General for each Convention adoption, including any supplemental statement needed to meet that country's requirements; (iii) the agency gives prospective parents a training program with counseling and guidance to help the adoption succeed, before they travel to adopt or the child is placed with them; (iv) the agency pays staff who provide intercountry adoption services a flat fee for service, not a fee based on outcome; and (v) the agency fully discloses its policies, practices, how often its placements are disrupted, and all its intercountry adoption fees. (B) Capacity to provide adoption services — the agency, directly or through arrangements with others, has enough trained staff, money, organizational structure, and procedures to provide all required adoption services. (C) Use of social service professionals — the agency has procedures ensuring that work requiring clinical skill and judgment is done only by qualified, credentialed professionals. (D) Records, reports, and information matters — the agency can (i) keep the records and make the reports the Secretary, the U.S. central authority, and its accrediting entity require; (ii) cooperate with reviews, inspections, and audits; (iii) safeguard sensitive personal information; and (iv) meet other information-management rules needed to comply with the Convention, this chapter, and other law. (E) Liability insurance — the agency agrees to carry adequate insurance for professional negligence and any other insurance the Secretary requires. (F) Compliance with applicable rules — the agency has adequate measures to comply, and to make its agents and clients comply, with the Convention, this chapter, and other applicable law. (G) Nonprofit organization with state license — the agency is a private nonprofit licensed to provide adoption services in at least one state. (2) Approval. A person cannot be approved unless they are a private for-profit entity meeting requirements (A) through (F) above. (3) Renewal of accreditation or approval. Accreditation or approval lasts 3 to 5 years and can be renewed by showing the agency or person still meets the original requirements. (c) Temporary registration of community based agencies. (1) One-year registration for medium community-based agencies. For one year after the Convention takes effect, the Secretary may allow an agency to register and be accredited without meeting the full rules in subsection (b), if it provided fewer than 100 intercountry adoptions the year before and meets the criteria in paragraph (3). (2) Two-year registration for small community-based agencies. For two years after the Convention takes effect, the Secretary may allow this same shortcut for an agency that provided fewer than 50 intercountry adoptions the year before and meets the criteria in paragraph (3). (3) Criteria for registration. A registered agency must: (A) be licensed in its state and be a nonprofit; (B) have provided intercountry adoption services for at least 3 years; (C) show it can, and does, give the government all information required under section 14914(b); (D) have started, and be actively working through, the process of becoming fully accredited; and (E) not have been found involved in any improper conduct relating to intercountry adoptions.