Designated vs. Shared Lists

The China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) has two methods by which they make Waiting Child’s files available to adoption agencies: the “Designated” List and the “Shared” List.

The Designated List
On the Designated List, Waiting Children’s files are assigned to one specific agency for placement with their adoptive families. CCAI is pleased to receive designated children’s files regularly, on average about 30 new children’s files per month (though this number will vary greatly month to month). Most of these children come from Henan province. When a family receives a potential child referral from the Designated List of children, a decision generally must be reached within about a week.

The Shared List
CCAI also uses the Shared List, a secure electronic listing of children’s files that is shared by multiple adoption agencies. This means that multiple adoption agencies can see the SAME children’s files and as such, there is a possibility for multiple families to be viewing the information for the same child at the same time. Adoption agencies have the ability to “lock” a child for a particular family, by submitting the family’s name to the CCCWA. When a file is locked, it disappears from view of all other agencies. This initial lock lasts for 72 hours, during which time the agency must translate and submit an adoptive family’s Letter of Intent, family information, and photos, to finalize that lock. If information is not submitted within 72 hours, the file is “unlocked” and goes back out to the Shared List. An agency may only lock the file of a particular child once. More...

CCAI’s Practice
CCAI uses both the Designated List and Shared List to match as many children as possible to our waiting families. We typically match 30-50 children per month, approximately 60% from our Designated List and 40% from the Shared List.