Special Home Finding Program is a strategy used to find parents for special needs. Special Needs Children for Special Home Finding (SNC-SHF) refers to those children who are not matched through the regular adoption process due to lack of PAPs in the Roster of Approved Applicants (RAA) accepting their condition. The children may need surgeries, have minor or major developmental delays, are handicapped, are older child (6 years old and above), are of sibling group of older children, sexually or physically abused children, have serious illness such as blood disorders, communicable diseases, are mentally challenged and from parents with history of mental illness, alcohol use, drug use and the like.

The special home finding program has the following processes and procedures:

1. Upon receipt of the child’s dossier and clearance for inter-country adoption, the social worker shall review and assess the completeness and consistency of the Child Study Report and Supporting Documents (SDs).

• If CSR and SDs are complete and consistent, the social worker will prepare a summary of the child’s background inclusive of his/her description of special needs for inclusion to the Special Home Finding list to be sent FAAs.
• If CSR and SDs are incomplete, the social worker will write to the child caring agency concerned to request for additional information and/or lacking document and clarification on inconsistent data.

2. The SPU shall endorse to all CA’s and FAAs the background summaries of the children specifying the child’s special needs with photographs every first Friday of the month.

3. The CA’s and FAAs shall inform ICAB in writing should they wish to put a child “on-hold” for home recruitment. The SPU shall endorse to CAs/FAAs the child’s complete dossier (Child Study Report, Medical and Health Profile, Psychological Evaluation and Developmental Assessment) upon request of the CA/FAA. The child will be on-hold for the agency for a maximum of two (2) weeks.

4. The FAAs shall submit a short profile of the family for initial assessment. In cases where several families indicate their willingness to accept the child, the profile of the families will be presented to the Inter-Country Placement Committee and later on to the Board for their assessment and selection. The requirement of a short profile will save the family costs of securing a full dossier when there is no assurance of being selected.

5. The SPU shall inform in writing the concerned CCAs and CAs/ FAAs of the Board’s decision. The CAs/FAAs who requested the child to be put “on-hold” shall submit the dossier of the prospective adoptive parents within three (3) months.

                          (insert flowchart on special home finding process)

The Hosting Program

The Hosting Program is a strategy used to find possible permanent families for older Filipino children who are considered older child without any health or mental issues, without a proper match from the Roster of Approved Applicants (RAA).

The Hosting Program participants (minimum of 5 and maximum of 20) have been pre-assessed by the ICAB as qualified to participate in the program. The child shall travel to the host country and live with pre identified host families for a period of three (3) to four (4) weeks. The host families must have a strong commitment to adopt. Activities for the Hosting Program shall, as much as possible, approximate the activities in a normal family setting e.g. house chores, time with the family, family outings, church/community activities and interactions with other host families/children. Weekly potlucks, etc. may be required for the children to get together.

The following are the criteria for children who can participate in the ICAB Hosting Program:

• Between 9-15 years old, healthy, single or sibling group;
• Cleared for inter-country adoption and categorized as special needs children for special home finding;
• Physically fit (medical and dental) and psychologically healthy;
• Able to learn, express and communicate his/her needs with the use of basic English language.

(insert flowchart on special home finding process)