New York State's Separated Siblings

YET THESE CHILDREN ARE BEING PLACED SEPARATELY FROM THEIR SIBLINGS

Click Here for Destiny's Photolisting	Click Here for Steven's Photolisting	Click Here for Ana's Photolisting

Information on many more New York children awaiting adoption is available at
The Adoption Album, New York State Office of Children and Family Services

Information for Advocates:

• Keeping Siblings Connected -June, 2007 NYS OCFS White Paper on Siblings in Foster Care and Adoptive Placement ( pdf)
• NYS CCC's Separated Siblings Report 2000-2002
  An overview of the findings from a three year analysis of separated siblings in New York State foster care, including recommendations for change, and links to each year's report and Trends 2000-2002.
• Keeping Siblings Together: A Statement in Support and Recommendations for Change.
• New York State's Laws & Regulations Regarding Siblings

Articles Relating to Sibling Separation and Loss:

• Visitation Through the Eyes of a Child - Practice Notes on Sibling Visitation from the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, University of Minnesota.
• New Jersey Summer Camp for Separated Siblings - Describes a summer camp designed to reunite children separated in foster care placements.
• Overcoming Barriers to Keeping Siblings Together - Outlines potential reasons for separating siblings, and why they should be overcome.
• Sibling-Friendly Agencies and Practices Keep Children Together - Information about how agencies can use specific recruitment techniques to place sibling groups together.
• Sibling Loss: The Hidden Tragedy of the Child Welfare System - Background information about sibling separation and explanation of one model program designed to place siblings together.
• Sibling Ties Are Worth Preserving - Suggestions for adoption workers and adoptive parents on how to keep siblings together.
• When Siblings Are Separated: What Parents Need to Know- Information for parents trying to decide whether their adopted and foster children should maintain contact with separated siblings.

Searching for Siblings:

• Adoption Information Registry - New York State Department of Health
• Internet search resources compiled by NYSCCC

Research and Advocacy Resources

• National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice and Permanency Planning - Information Packet: Siblings in Foster Care - Collection of fact sheets, model program information, and other information from various sources, including information formerly on Casey Resource Family site.
• Sibling Groups in Out of Home Care - Link to the the national Child Welfare Information Gateway
• Proceedings of the National Leadership Symposium on Siblings in Out-of-Home Care from Casey Family Programs
• Youth Leadership Advisory Team Position Paper: Siblings in Foster Care and Adoption -The Maine Youth Leadership Advisory Team's position paper was instrumental in shaping the Maine Department of Human Services' sibling policy, effective July 2002.
• Conservation of Sibling Bonds - Issue Briefs from the Children and Family Research Center
• Reading List Compiled by NYSCCC

Model Programs Designed to Unite and/or Place Sibling Groups Together

• Growing Up Together - Programs promote placing siblings together in foster families within their neighborhood. From Connect for Kids.
• Neighbor to Neighbor - Chicago Based Hull House Association Neighbor to Neighbor program works to keep large sibling groups together in stable foster placements.
• Neighbor to Family - Introduction and Evaluation - Expansion of Neighbor to Neighbor program based in Florida.
• Camp To Belong - A nonprofit summer camp dedicated to reuniting brothers and sisters separated in foster care.
• Project Visitation - Hawaii project utilizing volunteers to maintain the relationship between siblings who are living in separate foster homes by bringing them together for regular visitations.

11/28/2007