Keeping Siblings Together:
A Statement in Support and Recommendations for Change

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New York State enacted laws to ensure that brothers and sisters would be placed together in foster care and adoption. However, a law does not guarantee the appropriate actions nor the desired results. As shown in NYS CCC's Separated Siblings Report 2000-2002, a large number of adoptable siblings in foster care are being planned for separately, especially in Upstate New York.

It is important to note that while New York City has vastly more children in foster care than the rest of the state combined, significantly fewer children are separated from their brothers and sisters than in Upstate New York. This positive and commendable outcome in New York City is the result of stricter monitoring and accountability standards, following settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid Society.

Notwithstanding an agency’s best efforts and commitment to preserving sibling bonds, compelling reasons may demand that a child’s best interests are served by separation. Nevertheless, New York City’s record indicates that very few children, in fact, need to be separated. The circumstances of foster children in Upstate New York cannot be so drastically different from those in New York City as to warrant the much greater frequency of separation. Will it take another lawsuit to make sure Upstate siblings get the same protection as their counterparts in New York City?

NYS legislators have done their part. Our laws are clear and unequivocal. Foster children must not be unnecessarily separated from their brothers and sisters. Local social services districts are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that diligent efforts are made to place siblings together unless such placement is determined to be detrimental to the best interests of the children.

Articles in the professional literature repeatedly affirm the importance of the sibling bond. It is the longest lasting relationship most people ever have. Brothers and sisters share common experiences and history. Siblings raised in emotionally stressed families may have an even stronger bond. When parents are absent--physically or emotionally--older siblings often take their place in significant ways.

Studies have shown that foster children have an easier time transitioning and adjusting to adoption when they have the emotional support of their siblings. Following the loss of parents, separation from siblings compounds a child's emotional and psychological burden. The longstanding need to reconnect with missing siblings is demonstrated by the number of separated siblings who, as adults, search for missing brothers and sisters, in numbers surpassing those who search for birthparents.

For brothers and sisters who are legally freed for adoption and are photolisted in New York’s Adoption Album or other photolistings, a very simple change in agency practice can greatly increase their chances of finding a permanent home together. Instead of photographing them separately, agencies can present brothers and sisters as a group in one photo, thereby significantly increasing the likelihood of placement together, according to the research findings of Cornell University’s Rosemary Avery, PhD.

Prospective adoptive parents who see brothers and sisters with their arms linked or otherwise visually connected in the same photograph can readily understand and accept that these kids are "a package deal." Photographing siblings together and presenting them in the same photo is an easy way for agencies and photolisting services to help assure that siblings awaiting adoption have the best chance of being together in a permanent adoptive family.

The NYS Citizens’ Coalition for Children urges the NYS Office of Children and Family Services to initiate the following changes to benefit all of New York State's foster children who have brothers or sisters, including those children whose goal is to return home and those whose goal is adoption:

1. Investigate the status and decision-making process of all separated children documented in NYS CCC's Separated Siblings Report 2000-2002, to assess the necessity for separation.
2. Monitor and publicly report the sibling status of all children in foster care, including all children awaiting adoption.
3. Institute procedures to review every agency decision to separate siblings.