Post-Placement Report

Question: Adoption - Russia and Kazakhstan? I was wondering for those that have adopted from Russia and/or Kazakhstan more recently can answer some of my questions below. 1. How many trips did you have to make? and how long were each? 2. Did both parents have to be there for the one or both trips the entire time? 3. Did you feel the process was organized? or does that just depend on your agency that you work with? 4. Did you feel comfortable in the regions you were staying during all your trips? 5. Did any of your children have any serious medical problems that were found out after you returned home? 6. Do you know if you can adopt siblings or just more than one child at once? or do they need to be separate adoptions? 7. Post Placement - I see there are reports that are needed for the first three years... but is it true a report is needed every year until the child is 18? can you do those reports each or does a social worker need to?

Answer: My experience is with Russia in 2001 and 2005... but I think I've kept pretty up-to-date with the current process. 1. How many trips did you have to make? and how long were each? For our first adoption, 1 trip of 11 days. For our second adoption, two trips. The first trip was 7 days, the second trip was 23 days. (Many families now are taking three short trips of, say, 7 days, 5 days and 5 days, instead of two longer trips.) 2. Did both parents have to be there for the one or both trips the entire time? Both parents need to meet the child before court and appear in person at the court hearing. (Both of these things could be done on the second trip if necessary.) My DH left shortly after our court hearing to get home to our son and to save his time off work so he could stay home with us when we first got home. 3. Did you feel the process was organized? or does that just depend on your agency that you work with? I felt the process was organized, but there's a lot of "hurry up, then wait." Both of our court dates were assigned with very short notice (I was told this is somewhat normal), which meant a lot of scrambling for visas, reservations, making arrangements at work, etc. Good communication with your agency is vital though. 4. Did you feel comfortable in the regions you were staying during all your trips? I felt very comfortable in both regions we stayed in (Moscow and Krasnoyarsk). It really helps to learn a little bit of the language though. We found if we were willing to try, others were very willing to help. 5. Did any of your children have any serious medical problems that were found out after you returned home? Both of my children had "moderate" health issues that were undiagnosed/unmentioned in Russia. They are not anything that would have prevented us from adopting them, but it would have been nice to know in advance, so we could have had resources/doctors lined up. 6. Do you know if you can adopt siblings or just more than one child at once? or do they need to be separate adoptions? Sibling groups are definitely available. Some regions (but not all) also allow the adoption of unrelated children at the same time. Other regions require that unrelated children be adopted separately. 7. Post Placement - I see there are reports that are needed for the first three years... but is it true a report is needed every year until the child is 18? can you do those reports each or does a social worker need to? The standard rule in Russia is that post-placement reports are required at 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and 3 years post-adoption. They must be completed by a licensed social worker. The court has the jurisdiction to require additional reports if they wish. (I've only heard of this happening a few times.) Your agency might also make additional requests. The agency we used for the first adoption wanted monthly updates for the first year. The agency we used for the second adoption wants yearly updates until the child turns 18. These agency-requested updates are something you can do yourself and are pretty informal.

Question: For US/Canadian AP's or anyone who knows...? I'm just trying to gain more understanding on how your local/inter-country adoption system works. AFTER a child is placed for adoption and before the court order goes through is the family assessed by anyone. (If not- could this prevent some people who slipped through the first part of the system to be caught out. Say Abusers like people have highlighted here, ones that slipped through.) We had six months of post placement assessment by the dept of local adoptions. I didn't bother us at all, it meant they cared about how we were bonding and if any issues that could crop up etc. Then the reports the assessor made was part of the court proceedings to show we could officially adopt our child. (Its the same for inter-country once they return to Australia they still have to be assessed before the court order goes through.) What are your thoughts. Thanks. thanks for all the answers. I though there would have to be some kind of after placement assessment. I just didn't recall people mentioning it in posts. Freckle- Good point, Some social service workers get paid a lot of money to go into homes after placement. From some of the questions I had often thought "Gee- a person could tell you anything!" For some its more than just a job.

Answer: Hi Serenity, Though things can vary a fair amount by state, I think things are more or less the same in the US, at least in theory, for domestic adoptions. The adoption isn't usually legalized until after the child has been with the adoptive family for awhile, and they are at least nominally assessed for their fitness as parents. However how diligent the assessment is can really vary, and an agency with a financial motive for completing an adoption is more likely to be lax, I'd think. International adoptions are often a little different. In most cases the child has already been adopted in their home country. Post placement visits are still made (in some cases until the child reaches adulthood), but they are essentially formalities in many or most cases, because the adoptive parents are already the child's legal parents (we were after the second day with our daughter in China). I suppose if something seemed drastically wrong the child could be removed to the state foster care system, but I've never heard of that happening (though in a few cases, despite its flaws, the foster care system would have been much better for the child than their abusive adoptive parents). In most states you do have to have Post placement visits before you readopt in your state, but readoption isn't a requirement in many states. I hope that helps a bit with your question. I too would hope that unfit adoptive parents be caught and kept from adopting, but I think the profit motive in the US system can get in the way of that -- and that is very sad.