Russian MoE Black List Goes Global
EDITED: The list has been updated since this blog post. For the most current list, please see the links in my article about the black list.
About two months ago, the Russian Ministry of Education & Science (MoE) sent a letter to regional adoption officials throughout Russia advising them not to accept adoption-related documents from USA-based home study providers, social workers, and agencies who were listed by the federal MoE as delinquent in submitting required post-placement reports (PPR's). This caused no small number of problems for pre-adoptive parents who were nearing their court date and happened to have home study documents prepared by one of the people or organizations on the list.
At the same time, it caused confusion for the home study providers, since the MoE did not provide any instructions about how to comply and be removed from the list. Over the course of time, a procedure was developed to help those on the list find out why they were listed and submit (or re-submit) the missing PPR's.
But there remained a not-so-small matter: how could a provider verify that they were removed from the list? The MoE finally answered that question today, by publishing an updated list at the same Internet link that contained the original list. Of the 176 USA providers on the first two versions of the list, 24 were not included in today's release. The list is shrinking, so that's good news, right?
Not so fast.
The list actually increased from 8 pages to approximately 24 pages. While there appears to be no new USA providers on the list, the MoE has expanded the list to include providers from all over the world, including:
83 from France
23 from Spain
10 from Ireland
37 from Germany
8 from Great Britain
2 from Austria
13 from Switzerland
1 from Malta
1 from Greece
1 from Canada
1 from New Zealand
1 from Azerbaijan
2 from Ukraine
1 from Sweden
1 from Cyprus
1 from Panama
1 from the Netherlands
1 from Uzbekistan
So, while it appears that there is happy news for some of the USA providers and their clients, there's also bad news in that the MoE has decided to extend its black list to the rest of the world, too. If you are reading this from one of the newly affected countries, you have my sympathies.
The means for finding out if you are impacted and how to get off the list remain the same as what I posted for the USA in this article on the RussianAdoptionHelp.com website..
About two months ago, the Russian Ministry of Education & Science (MoE) sent a letter to regional adoption officials throughout Russia advising them not to accept adoption-related documents from USA-based home study providers, social workers, and agencies who were listed by the federal MoE as delinquent in submitting required post-placement reports (PPR's). This caused no small number of problems for pre-adoptive parents who were nearing their court date and happened to have home study documents prepared by one of the people or organizations on the list.
At the same time, it caused confusion for the home study providers, since the MoE did not provide any instructions about how to comply and be removed from the list. Over the course of time, a procedure was developed to help those on the list find out why they were listed and submit (or re-submit) the missing PPR's.
But there remained a not-so-small matter: how could a provider verify that they were removed from the list? The MoE finally answered that question today, by publishing an updated list at the same Internet link that contained the original list. Of the 176 USA providers on the first two versions of the list, 24 were not included in today's release. The list is shrinking, so that's good news, right?
Not so fast.
The list actually increased from 8 pages to approximately 24 pages. While there appears to be no new USA providers on the list, the MoE has expanded the list to include providers from all over the world, including:
83 from France
23 from Spain
10 from Ireland
37 from Germany
8 from Great Britain
2 from Austria
13 from Switzerland
1 from Malta
1 from Greece
1 from Canada
1 from New Zealand
1 from Azerbaijan
2 from Ukraine
1 from Sweden
1 from Cyprus
1 from Panama
1 from the Netherlands
1 from Uzbekistan
So, while it appears that there is happy news for some of the USA providers and their clients, there's also bad news in that the MoE has decided to extend its black list to the rest of the world, too. If you are reading this from one of the newly affected countries, you have my sympathies.
The means for finding out if you are impacted and how to get off the list remain the same as what I posted for the USA in this article on the RussianAdoptionHelp.com website..
Labels: Agencies, MoE Black List, Pre-adoption, Russia
Written by Jim
4 Comments
Published: Friday, April 3, 2009 at 5:42 PM
Reader Comments:
what is the effect of this in real terms? we are waitign to send docs from an affected region (in ireland) next week...
In forum posts, American pre-adoptive parents have reported varying effects depending on the region. It is possible that the regional officials in some regions will refuse to register your documents, thus blocking a referral. It is possible that those with a referral may be prevented by regional officials from going to court. And, the federal MoE holds the ultimate trump card, in that they must issue a federal data bank release letter in order for an adoption court case to be heard, but they can refuse to issue a release letter for cases where the home study or PPR commitment was completed by an organization on the list.
There is no guarantee what will happen in any particular case, but as long as a home study provider is on the list, there is a strong possibility that cases associated with that provider can be delayed until the organization is removed from the list.
Hi,
Does this effect people who have a court date?
People with court dates may be affected. When the list was first published in January, at least one USA-based family reported that they were scheduled to leave for their court trip in two days, but their agency called them and told them to not to go.
I think the impact on any particular case will be dependent on the region and the current phase of the adoption. The best thing to do is to check with your coordinator to find out whether you are impacted.
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