Dillon International is honored to be chosen by the China Center of Adoption Affair’s to participate in the CCAA on-line special needs system. As more infants are adopted domestically in China, the children with the greatest need for families are children with special needs and older children. We embrace children from all parts of the People’s Republic of China with a wide variety of special needs ranging from cleft lip and palate to cerebral palsy and heart conditions to Hepatitis B to name a few. We have seen the percentage of Waiting Child placements grow from 9% of our total placements in 2003 to 57% of our placements in 2009. We firmly believe every child deserves a loving, permanent family, and we count it a blessing to partner with the CCAA to help reach this goal. However, we do realize that not all families are called to adopt a child with special needs and we deeply respect each family’s decision.

Waiting Child Listings
Dillon has access to the CCAA shared agency list of children with special needs. We also receive individual listings of children who are assigned only to Dillon.

When the CCAA receives the legal paperwork for a child and deems that a child has a special need, the child is placed in the CCAA online special needs system. There are two ways through the online system that children can find families. The CCAA maintains a shared agency list of children with special needs. Any agency approved by the CCAA to place Waiting Children can access the background and medical information about a child on this list. Only the agency can lock a child’s file for a particular family. The positive aspect of the shared agency list is that more agencies are actively searching for families for the children, so the children have a greater chance of being adopted.  

The second way a waiting child can find a family is through the individual agency list. Dillon receives designated referrals of children from the CCAA. Only Dillon is actively searching for families for these children. 

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Time Frames
The CCAA requires families to have a current approved home study in order to apply for a child in the special needs program; therefore, you must have this in order to receive and review a child’s file.  

For both the individual referrals designated to Dillon and the shared agency list, the CCAA designates a time frame in which the adoptive family must submit their dossier if it is not already logged-in at the CCAA. For some children, the CCAA will only accept applications from families whose dossiers are already logged-in. For most of the other children, the CCAA requests that the family be in a position to submit their dossier within 3 months of their Letter of Intent to Adopt a Special Needs child being approved. 

Some children are able to receive corrective surgeries, life-saving operations and rehabilitative therapies in China. The CCAA actually has a special fund which supports these endeavors. There are also many humanitarian organizations that help provide medical care and advocacy for these children. Fortunately for the children, the CCAA expedites the adoption process for Waiting Children. Generally, families adopting a Waiting Child will travel 3 to 6 months after their dossier is sent to the CCAA or their Letter of Intent to Adopt a particular child is sent to the CCAA, whichever is later.  

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Family Preparation
Please keep in mind there are more boys than girls in need of families, and the majority of children are 2 years and older. The length of time it takes to identify a child for a family is directly related to the characteristics of the child the family is open to considering (e.g., age, gender, special need).  

It is absolutely critical that families who desire to adopt a child with special needs do their home work now, before they are presented a referral of a child. Educate yourself about the special need, treatment and therapies, medical resources, health insurance coverage, and community support. In order to be eligible to adopt a Waiting Child, your family must have health insurance that will cover your child’s pre-existing condition upon placement with your family for adoption. 

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Steps in the Process
These are the steps in the Waiting Child Program once a family is eligible to consider a referral of a child.

1.     The family is presented a child’s background and medical information by Dillon staff or requests a particular child’s background and medical information from the Dillon China secure webpage.

2.     For children on the shared agency list, Dillon staff locks the child’s file for the family.

3.     The family reviews the child’s information and seeks medical consultation from their doctor, medical specialist and/or international adoption clinic.

4.      If the child is a designated referral for Dillon, the family has at least two weeks to make a decision about submitting an application to the CCAA requesting to be considered to adopt the child. If the child is on the shared agency list, the family has 48 hours to make this decision and submit the application.

5.     The family completes the Letter of Intent to Adopt a Special Needs Child, and Dillon staff uploads the application on the CCAA website. For children on the shared agency list, the application must be uploaded prior to the expiration of the 48-hour period or the child’s referral will automatically go back on the shared agency list and Dillon will not be able to re-lock the child’s file.

6.     The CCAA reviews the family’s Letter of Intent and issues a pre-approval notice granting preliminary approval of the application. If the CCAA does not agree with the match, they decline the family’s application.

7.     If the family’s dossier is already logged-in at the CCAA, the CCAA will review the dossier and send Dillon the Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter. This is the CCAA certificate officially presenting the referral of the child to the family if they approve of the match. If the family’s dossier is not already at the CCAA, the family must gather the dossier and Dillon will submit the dossier to the CCAA so it can be translated and reviewed prior to issuance of the Letter of Seeking Confirmation.

8.     Upon receiving the official referral of the child from the CCAA, the family has at least two weeks to make a decision about accepting the child. The family signs the Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter and Dillon returns it to the CCAA.

9.     If the family filed an I-800A and is completing a Hague adoption, they may now file the I-800. The family must have provisional approval of their I-800 before they can travel.

10.  The CCAA sends the Notice of Traveling to China for Adoption (also known as travel clearance) to Dillon.

11.  Dillon consults the family and submits an appointment request form to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou.

12.  The U.S. Consulate confirms the appointment date and the travel dates are set.

13.  The family travels to China, completes the adoption and applies for the child’s U.S. visa with assistance from Bridge of Love Adoption Services.

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CCAA Guidelines for Families Switching Agencies to Adopt a Child with Special Needs
Recently, in order to promote children finding loving, permanent families, the CCAA adopted a new policy allowing families to switch adoption agencies in order to adopt a child with special needs on an agency’s individual designated list of referrals. The CCAA set forth the following guidelines to direct this process:  

1.               Adoption agencies shall try their best to recommend families whose dossiers have already been submitted to the CCAA through their agency to adopt children with special needs.

2.               Adoptive families can only switch to another agency if they apply to adopt a child with special needs from the agency’s individual designated list.

3.               When an adoptive family applies to switch to another agency, the two agencies involved must be in agreement and submit letters to the CCAA respectively agreeing to transfer the family’s case and receive/accept the family’s case.

4.               When an adoptive family applies to switch to another agency, the receiving agency shall make sure that the family pays another service fee.

5.               The receiving adoption agency shall be responsible for submitting the post-placement reports to the CCAA.

6.               Dossiers submitted before May 1, 2007 are reviewed according to the old CCAA family criteria (single applicants are not accepted), while those submitted after May 1, 2007 are reviewed according to the new Priority Rules. 

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Accessing Waiting Child Information
If you would like to view more information about Waiting Children from China, please click on the link to the right to complete the online screening form. Before completing the screening form, we ask you to review Dillon’s China Adoption Program and the agency’s general Adoption Policies to make sure you meet the guidelines for our adoption program in the People’s Republic of China.  

Upon approval of your screening form, you will be provided a password via email for viewing Dillon’s China Waiting Children secure webpage. Passwords will periodically change in order to further protect the privacy and anonymity of each child featured with Dillon’s Waiting Child Program.  

If you would like to view a specific child’s complete background and medical information, the next step will be to complete Dillon’s Waiting Child Application-part #1.  

Thank you for visiting our China Waiting Children page! To consider other waiting children from Dillon’s Waiting Child Program, please visit our main Waiting Child page. 

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Mentor Families

Dillon’s Waiting Child Program Coordinator can connect you with other Dillon families who have adopted children with special needs. These families can share their experiences with you and help you with questions you may have as you consider adding a specific waiting child to your family. Please email our Waiting Child Program Coordinator to receive a reference list of our “mentor families.”

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