Today the CCCWA released new guidelines that are effective immediately. Although many questions still abound, even for agency workers, here is a brief summary of updates and changes to the CCCWA’s guidelines for potential adoptive families. More information will be shared as questions are answered. As for now, this is what we know.

• For married couples, there should be no more than 5 minor children living in the home.  For single parents, there should be no more than 2 minor children living in the home.
• The youngest child in the home should be at least 3 years old
• There needs to be a 1 year interval between the placement of the first child and the “current adoption application date” of the next adoption
• No more adopting two unrelated children simultaneously
• If a married couple has no divorces or 1 divorce, then the marriage length requirement is 2 years
• Those with 2 divorces or more are still required to be married at least 5 years
• Length of cohabitation before marriage counts towards marriage length
• If a parent has a history of skin, thyroid, breast, or testicular cancer, it should be “cured” for at least 3 years.  For other kinds of cancer, it should be “cured” for at least 5 years.
• There is no longer an income or net-worth exception for those living in a low-cost area (except for families living in China)
• If families live overseas, they can only adopt from China if that country also has a “cooperative relationship with China in inter-country adoption” or is also part of the Hague

Some of these are consistent with what has been stated in the past, although waivers were granted on a case by case basis. The status of waivers is not yet clear. Also unclear is whether this applies to families already in process or just families who have not yet received PA or LID. These are answers we hope to have soon and will be sure to post when we know for sure.