Our understanding of sibling relationships and the role they play in the lives of children and youth in foster care has deepened over the past decade.  Growing bodies of research and data and practice experience have demonstrated the importance of maintaining sibling relationships and connections.  Equally, if not more, compelling are the voices of youth who have brought visibility to the importance of their relationships with their siblings.

Research has demonstrated that sibling relationships as bonds that are important to children’s development and emotional well-being.  Sibling relationships are now understood as playing a vital role in helping children achieve developmental milestones and in providing emotional support, companionship and comfort in times of change.   These relationships are crucial for children and youth in foster care as sibling often are the “family” that they can claim and that can provide them with a sense of identity and a feeling of belonging in the world.   In many cases, when siblings are placed together, they are able to use their relationship to understand who they are.  Sibling connections can provide children with family continuity even when circumstances require separation from their parents. When children experience loss as a result of separation from their parents because of safety or other reason, the loss of contact with siblings can further compounds that loss.   With the enactment of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, sibling relationships have been given high priority in child welfare placement and case planning decision making.

Based on a review of the literature and current practice we organized this toolkit into ten components. These practice components are dynamic and not mutually exclusive to one another. 
Component #1. - Identification of All Siblings
Component #2. - Assessment of Sibling Groups
Component #3. - Initial Decision Making Regarding Placing Siblings Together
Component #4. - Reasonable and Ongoing Efforts to Place Siblings Together
Component #5. - Youth Voice in Sibling Placement Decision Making
Component #6. - Sibling Visits and Contacts
Component #7. - Documentation
Component #8. - Resource Families for Sibling Placements
Component #9. - Training for Caseworkers and Supervisors on the Importance of Preserving Sibling Connections
Component #10. - The Courts Role in Sibling Placements

Studies indicate that between 65 and 85 percent of children and youth in foster care have other sibling in foster care (McCormick, 2011).  Based on preliminary data for Fiscal Year 2010, between 265,500 and 347,000 children and youth in foster care nationally have a sibling (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2011).  It is estimated that more than half of these children – between 132,750 and 173,500 children and youth nationally -- are separated from at least one sibling (McCormick, 2011).

Approximately 25 percent of the waiting children listed on the AdoptUsKids website as of August 1, 2010 were listed as sibling groups needing to be placed together with an adoptive family (Sohn, et al., 2010).  Between October 1, 2002 and July 31, 2010, a total of 6,529 children in 2,747 siblings groups who had been listed on the AdoptUsKids website were adopted.  Of these 2,747 siblings groups, 2,417 (88 percent) sibling groups were placed together at the same time.  The majority of children placed were in sibling groups of two or three children (Sohn, 2010).

In 2009, Fostering Perspectives, a publication of the Jordan Institute for Families, devoted an issue to honoring and maintaining sibling connections when children and youth in foster care. The following are selected statements from the youth who responded to an invitation to share their perspectives on their siblings:

Source:  Jordan Institute for Families. (2009). Honoring and maintaining sibling connections.  Fostering Perspectives, 14(1).  Retrieved February 17, 2012 from www.fosteringperspectives.org/fpv14n1/v14n1.htm

One framework for thinking about sibling placements was developed by Hegar and Rosenthal (2011):

• Split Placements: The child does not have any siblings in the home with him/her.
• Splintered Placements: The child has at least one sibling in the home with him/her.
• Placements Together:  All siblings are in the home.

“Practice wisdom and limited research support the basic premise that children experience better outcomes when placed with their siblings. These outcomes include greater stability, fewer emotional and behavioral problems, fewer placements, and fewer days in placement.” (Groza, et al., 2003).

Emerging from the research is the clear message that one of the most critical contributions that child welfare professionals can provide for children and youth in care is to preserve their connections with their brothers and sisters. For many children in foster care, being placed with their siblings spares them the experience of yet another loss in their lives and provides with a continuing shared history and being with others who look like them.  Studies have shown that when siblings are placed together in foster care, they are: 

• More likely to feel safer in the new home
• Less likely to experience emotional and behavioral problems
• More likely to score higher on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
• More likely to show more positive dealings with peers and function better at school
• More likely to be reunified, adopted or placed in permanent guardian arrangements

(Gass, Jenkins, & Dunn, 2007; Groza, et al., 2003; Hegar, 2005; Hegar & Rosenthal, 2011; Herrick & Pincus, 2005; Leathers, 2005; Shlonsky, et al., 2005; Smith, 1998; Tarren-Sweeney & Hazell, 2005; Webster, et al., 2005).  
Studies also indicate that separating siblings when they are in foster care can have negative consequences:

• Separate siblings can experience trauma, anger and an extreme sense of loss that can impact their ability to heal and form attachments.
• Their sense of self esteem may be negatively impacted. When children see positive qualities in their brothers and sisters, they are less likely to see themselves as “a bad kid from a bad family.” They are more likely to exhibit problematic behavior than are siblings who are not separated They maybe at greater risk of placement disruption. 

(McNamara, 1990, Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2006)

Studies show that:

• Siblings groups are more likely to be placed together and remain together when the number of siblings is smaller.
• Siblings groups are more likely to be placed together and remain together when children in the sibling group are closer in age (less than 6 years apart between the first child entering care and the next sibling.
• Sibling groups placed with kin are more likely to remain intact than sibling groups placed with unrelated foster parents.
• In group care, siblings groups are almost 5 times as likely to be separated as sibling groups placed in family settings.   
• Whether children enter care together is crucial: if they are not placed together on the same day, they are much less likely to be placed with a sibling. 
• Siblings who enter foster care within 30 days of one another have almost 4 times the odds of residing together than children who enter care at time more widely spaced apart (Shlonsky, et al., 2005).
• In many instances, siblings do not enter foster care on the same day but over time, many siblings eventually enter care.  At that point, they may or may not be placed together.  Entering foster care at different times decreases siblings’ placement together; longer stays in foster care increases the likelihood of their eventually joint placement.
• Sibling groups are more likely to be placed apart when the assessment is that there are differences in their placement and services needs.

(James, et al., 2008; Shlonsky, et al., 2005; Wulcyzn & Zimmerman, 2005).
Other factors associated with whether siblings are placed together are systemic:

• Organizational policies and practices regarding sibling placement
• Adequacy of placement resources and supports
• Agency rules regarding the maximum number of children who can be placed in a foster home

(Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2006).

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2006). Siblings Issues in Foster Care and Adoption. Retrieved February 20, 2012 from http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/siblingissues/

Gass,K., Jenkins, J., & Dunn, J. (2007). Are sibling relationships protective? A longitudinal study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 167-175.

Groza, V., Maschmeier, C., Jamison, C. & Piccola, Trista. (2003). Siblings and out-of-home placement: Best practices.  Families in Society, 84(4), 480-490.

Hegar, R.L. (2005). Sibling placement in foster care and adoption: An overview of international research. Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 717-729.

Hegar, R.L. & Rosenthal, J.A. (2011).  Foster children placed with or separated from siblings: Outcomes based on a national sample.  Children and Youth Services Review, 33(7), 1245-1253.

Herrick, M.A. & Pincus, W. (2005). Sibling connections: The importance of nurturing sibling bonds in the foster care system.  Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 845-856.

James, S., Monn, A.R., Plainkas, L.A., & Leslie, L.K. (2008).  Maintaining sibling relationships for children in foster and adoptive placements.  Children and Youth Services Review, 30(1), 90-106.

Jordan Institute for Families. (2009). Honoring and maintaining sibling connections.  Fostering Perspectives, 14(1).  Retrieved February 17, 2012 from http://www.fosteringperspectives.org/fpv14n1/v14n1.htm

Leathers, S. (2005). Separation from siblings: Association with placement adaptation and outcomes among adolescents in long-term foster care.  Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 793-799.

McCormick, A. (2011). Siblings in foster care: An over view of research, policy and practice.  Journal of Public Child Welfare, 4(42), 198-218.

McNamara, B. H. (1990). WorkingWith sexually abused siblings in adoptive placement.
In McNamara, J. & McNamara, B. H. (Eds.). Adoption and the Sexually Abused Child (pp. 89-99). Portland, ME: University of Southern Maine, Human Services Development Institute.

Shlonsky, A., Bellamy, J., Elkins, J. & Ashare, C.J. (2005).  The other kin: Setting the course for research, policy and practice for siblings in foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 697-710. 

Smith, M.C. (1998). Sibling placement in foster care: An exploration of associated concurrent preschool-aged child functioning. Children and Youth Services Review, 20, 389-411.

Sohn, S., Jun, J., Alpert, L., & McRoy, R. G. (2010). Special report: Characteristics of sibling groups registered on the AdoptUsKids website.  Baltimore, MD: Adoption Exchange Association.

Tarren-Sweeney, M. & Hazen, P. (2005). The mental health and socialization of siblings in foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 821-843.

US Department of Health and Human Services. (2011). Preliminary Estimates FY 2010 as of June 2011. Retrieved February 2012 from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report18.htm

Webster, D., Shlonsky, A., Shaw, T. & Brookhart, M.A. (2005). The ties that bind II: Reunification for siblings in out-of-home care using a statistical technique for examining non-independent observations. Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 765-782.