In deal with state, adoption agency to repay families

Rocky Mountain News (CO)

Author: Tillie Fong

A Lakewood-based adoption agency has reached an agreement with the Colorado attorney general's office to reimburse prospective parents who say they were were misled about the availability of Ukrainian children for adoption.

also agreed to stop "photo listing" children on its Web site who are not ready for adoption. Additionally, it will separate its child-housing program from its adoption program.

According to the agreement, the state claimed that the adoption agency had used "photo listing" to recruit parents for its child housing and adoption program. Prospective parents were led to believe that they could adopt children whom they had housed.

But not all children were available for international adoption because legal requirements had not been met.

When prospective parents learned that the children were not available for immediate adoption, they demanded a refund but were refused.

The agency claimed that the fees were for adoptive "services" but not for actual adoptions.

Under the settlement, Adopt-A-Miracle would pay $28,500 of restitution to several families. The agency says that the agreement is not an admission to any wrongdoing.