Accreditation

So much for conflict of interest...

The US intends to ratify the Hague Convention beginning 2008. To this end they have designated two organisations as accreditors: one of them is the *Council on Accreditation*, in which  Thomas Atwood (President National Council for Adoption and former Board Member of Bethany Christian Services) and Beverly Grant (Director Bethany Christian Services) are members of the Board.

The acceditation process will be done on the basis of PEER reviews.

*September 5, 2007. Urgent Call for COA Site Evaluators.* The Council on Accreditation is currently vetting the applications of agencies who are applying to be accredited under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. However, there is an urgent need for qualified site evaluators who can perform the peer examinations which are a pre-requisite for accreditation. The State Department has stated that it does not foresee pushing back its target date of February 15, 2008 as the date when the U.S. ratifies the Hague Convention.

I include, as an attachment, a document found on the State Department's website, with recommendations made by the NCFA with regards to The Hague accreditation, in which the NCFA mentions COA even more often than they name themselves.