Mid-Year MoE Black List Update

The Russian Ministry of Education and Science (MoE) has updated its list of home study and post-placement providers for whom one or more post-placement reports are considered missing. This release, posted as usual to the MoE's official "Adoption in Russia" website (usynovite.ru), was dated June 7, 2011 but was posted a few weeks later.

As was the case in January, the ministerial letter to which this list was attached does not include verbiage recommending that regional adoption authorities not accept documents from home study providers on the list. While it is unclear whether that omission indicates a shift in policy, it may serve to take some of the bite out of appearing on the list.

This new list shows 140 USA providers total. Of those, 43 (by my count) were added since January, and 54 were removed since January, for a net reduction of 11 USA providers.

I noticed that some Russian regions, which did not report any providers in January, listed many of the same providers on this list that they reported prior to last January. What this means is unclear, but I suspect that the removal of a provider from any given list does not always mean that the issue which placed those providers on the list has been cleared up; it may simply mean that the region which listed them may not have sent an update to the MoE for one list.

If your provider was removed this time, congratulations! If your provider was added, or is still on the list, please see my article about how to be removed from the list.

Providers from the USA may have a short time to be concerned about this list. Reportedly, a new bilateral adoption agreement between Russia and the USA is due to be signed during the Russian Foreign Minister's trip to the USA next week. That agreement has been rumored to include a new regime for managing post-placement reports. If true, that may mean that the regularly-updated MoE black list may no longer affect American providers after the agreement enters force. Time will tell.