CDA wants to speed up adoption process

Faced with frequent criticisms, the Child Development Agency (CDA) is looking at proposals to reduce the time it takes to complete an adoption in Jamaica.

"We are currently reviewing the adoption law and the process because I agree that it is very long, but now we are revising and looking at how we can shorten the time," recently appointed head of the CDA, Carla Francis-Edie, told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament yesterday.

"The adoption process should not take more than one year and now it is taking more than a year," Francis-Edie added.

But even that one-year time frame could be reduced, as Francis-Edie tries to simplify the process without removing the checks and balances to protect the children who are to be adopted.

"I think one year is still a very long period and I think it should not take that long, but it is a work in process and it is going to take persons who have been working in the field for a number of years to sit and look at what is the most reasonable time."

Francis-Edie noted that, especially when persons living overseas are trying to adopt Jamaican children, there have to be checks with the adoption agency in the overseas territory to ensure that all is well.

Criticism

For years, local authorities have faced criticism about the time it takes to complete the adoption process.

Only recently, a couple living in Georgia in the United States decided that rather than wait on the slow process they would try a novel way to adopt a Jamaican child.

Delroy and Lesa Thompson, who are both teachers, have placed an advertisement on the popular networking website Facebook, seeking the attention of all pregnant Jamaican women who might possibly want to consider adoption.

The couple reported that while they had received approval from the CDA, they decided to take their search to the Internet, because they realised that finding a child from a children's home could take a long time.