DCFS should place siblings together in foster care

According to a Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) training titled “Keeping Children Connected to Their Brothers and Sisters,” when my mother received a sibling group of three in [date omitted to protect privacy], she should have been asked to take in the fourth sibling, who was an infant at the time. Additionally, when siblings are separated in foster care, they should have two sibling visits per month in addition to visits with the biological parent(s). Not only was this not facilitated, but any attempts to request the contact information of the foster parents of the fourth sibling were denied. It even says on the DCFS website that children in foster care will be told where their siblings are living and how to contact them. Also, if only one sibling from a sibling group is adopted, then the caseworker is supposed to speak with all parties involved about a continued contact plan or visits between the children.

This was not the only time DCFS neglected to follow through on their own policies. The sibling group of three was moved [about a year after initial placement with this student’s mother] because parental rights were being terminated, but my mother was still not able to contact the foster parents of the youngest sibling. We were told that they would be placed in a home five minutes away from the youngest, so my mother felt comfortable that they would be able to see each other. Following this removal, one of the children that was with my mother went to live with the youngest, and the other two children went to live in the household that was five minutes away. Later, the two that stayed together were moved because they were being abused. 

Throughout all the placements, the two sibling visits each month did not happen; they only saw each other during the parental meetings. The two siblings, who suffered through two placements and two school districts, came back to my mother [about seven months after being moved out of the student’s household when parental rights were terminated]. Finally, in [recent days], DCFS is getting around to moving the third child back into my mother’s care, which should have happened within 60 days of the other two returning to my mother’s house back [approximately nine months earlier], as explained in the training. Through foster parent support groups, my mother and I personally know of foster parents in similar situations. Foster parents are being denied the opportunity to keep siblings together; DCFS is failing to comply with their own policy.

We were not aware of this until my mother mistakenly took a staff training through Virtual Training Center (VTC), which shows that caseworkers should already have a working knowledge of the policy and are failing to implement it. Both caseworkers and foster parents should be aware of the information in this training, especially so siblings can stay together or stay in contact when that’s not possible. Foster children are negatively impacted when a rule like this is not enforced. Please contact your local DCFS office and urge them to consistently follow this policy.

For evidence of the importance of sibling foster care placement, see:

Washington, K. (2007). Sibling placement in foster care: a review of the evidence. Child & Family Social Work. 2007;12(4):426-433. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00467.x.