Vol. 8, No. 2• May 2004

Sibling Placement: Research to Practice

Barriers within the child welfare system sometimes keep siblings apart when they enter foster care. However, the authors of “Siblings and Out-of-Home Placement: Best Practices” suggest these barriers can be identified and minimized. The article, which appears in the October-December 2003 issue of Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, summarizes existing research on sibling relationships in families where children have been abused and neglected, discusses the conditions that sometimes lead to separation, and offers practical solutions to support maintaining sibling relationships during placement.

The authors suggest that the first step to removing barriers to sibling placement is for child welfare agencies to establish a policy—like North Carolina’s—that states that, absent a compelling reason, siblings should always be placed together when they enter foster care.

A second step should be the active recruiting of foster and adoptive families that are willing to accept siblings. Knowing how to obtain waivers, such as when space or family size becomes an issue, can be essential.

Finally, the article offers a multidimensional assessment tool to assist caseworkers in evaluating the following issues in sibling cases:

• The sibling relationship
• Safety, including risk factors
• Benefits to children of keeping siblings together
• Benefits to children of separating siblings
• Children’s wishes and expectations
• Available families
  

The full text of “Siblings and Out-of-Home Placement: Best Practices” can be found on the Alliance for Children and Families website at <www.alliance1.org/fis/>.

Reprinted from the Children’s Bureau Express, March 2004. <http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/>