IOWA

Keep siblings together in foster care

When children are placed in foster care, they are taken away from the families they know. Good or bad, those families belong to them. Even in the best of circumstances, entering foster care is devastating. Children may live with people they don't know. They may be afraid. They sometimes change schools and leave behind belongings and friends. They may lose touch with their biological parents.

But they shouldn't have to lose touch with siblings.

Older children may have been caretakers of younger ones and worry about their welfare. For younger kids, an older sibling may be the only nurturing figure they have ever known.

And then the state breaks up their family.

Foster care is difficult enough for children. They shouldn't have to wonder what happened to their brothers and sisters.

Two of Iowa's legislative leaders are proposing a change in law to spell out the state's intent that siblings be placed together in foster care. A draft of the bill states that if children are not placed together, the social worker will explain why not to both the child and the judge. And if siblings are not sent to the same home, they will be allowed to visit each other.

The proposed bill also requires foster-parent training to include teaching about the importance of sibling relationships. It's easy for foster parents to get focused on other issues - from court hearings to parental visitation. But foster parents need to know sibling visitation is a priority, since planning visits and transporting kids will frequently be their responsibility.

The proposed legislation will be introduced soon and should be approved. Iowa's social workers already try to place siblings in the same home, but making every effort to do so is so important for these children that it should be written into law.

The hope is that this bill will encourage the state to place siblings in the same foster home in the first place, said Jerry Foxhoven, director of the Middleton Center for Children's Rights at Drake University. If a social worker knows he or she will have to help arrange visits, they might work harder to keep children in the same foster family in the beginning, which is frequently the best arrangement in these difficult situations.

The proposed bill is important not only because it's good for foster kids, who have entered the human-services system through no fault of their own. It's also noteworthy because it was conceived by Iowa foster youth who are part of a group called Elevate.

"We asked this group about the most important thing they'd like to change about foster care, and they said this issue," Foxhoven said. These youth have been empowered to know if they don't like the law, they can work to change it.

It's up to Iowa lawmakers to do so.

Editorial
13 February 2007

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070213/OPINION03/702130377/1110

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