Special Needs Adoption

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Yesterday, I wrote about the age range changes for adoptive parents. Today I wanted to discuss what the new "lineamiento" or guidelines say about special needs adoptions.

First, ANYONE (including single parents) OF ANY AGE over 25 can be considered for the adoption of a child with Special Needs -- no matter the age of the child in question.

Second, people wishing to adopt children with special needs RECEIVE ALL PRIORITY. Meaning that their paperwork will be processed before any other people.

Third, Adoptive Parents requesting a child with Special Needs are considered 1st Priority and therefore are NOT placed on a wait list at all upon approval.
Fourth, ICBF states that once the dossier is approved by them, the referral process will take no more than 3 months.

Finally, Special Needs children are defined as the following:

a. Sibling groups of 3 or more.
b. Sibling groups of 2, when one is older than 8 years of age.
c. A single, healthy child, if older than 8 years of age.
d. A single child of any age that has a mental or physical disability.
e. A single child of any age with a permanent disease such as (HIV, Heart disease, Renal disease, among others)

Comments

Luchy Mendez said…
Hi Colombian Mommy,

Thank you for sharing all this information. We are colombians and would like to adopt a little girl from Colombia. I was thinking about special needs when I saw your post and I just wanted to ask if you know what are the restrictions for families already having kids at home.

Thank you,

Luchy
October 26, 2010 at 7:21 AM
Colombian Mommy said…
Luchy

Colombia is one of the few countries that does not have restrictions on the number of children you already have in the home if you wish to adopt a special needs child.
October 28, 2010 at 5:57 PM
Luchy Mendez said…
Thank you so much, that's great news!
October 28, 2010 at 8:08 PM
KateED said…
We came home with our special needs son in September and so I missed this post. I just want to say that it fits our experience to the letter. The best part for us was that we got an incredibly detailed description of our son. We live in Denmark and here there are a handful of doctors who review all adoption paperwork. Our doctor said it was the best description he had ever seen. The strange part was that we were told our son was "almost blind" and we were surprised to learn he actually can see a great deal, even though he is legally blind. His foster family was aware of this but because no doctor could document it, he was described as being "almost blind." Meaning ICBF erred on the side of caution. We were totally impressed by our experience.
January 14, 2011 at 9:23 AM
Anonymous said…
We have received a referral for a darling little 3 y.o. girl in the Popoyan region. I was surprised to find that she was considered special needs due to a yeast infection with no secondary/underlying cause. I spoke with my adopted Colombian brother who said, yes, due to some cultural feelings, she would be considered special needs. Anyone have any insight into this? We are thrilled, but it also makes me sad for other children whom may be overlooked by families. We have had her medical evaluated and she is fine. Thanks so very much for this wonderful blog and your invaluable cultural insight and adoption experience! So glad you have taken the time to do this! Thanks! LCampbell, CO, USA
March 16, 2011 at 8:45 PM
Colombian Mommy said…
Yes. I often wonder about the things that ICBF considers and DOES NOT consider special needs. I recognize that often the children are perfectly healthy, but still considered Special Needs. Other times, children referred as perfectly healthy are not. But, over all they do a good job.
March 16, 2011 at 11:21 PM
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