ARE YOU STILL MY FAMILY: POST ADOPTION SIBLING VISITATION Sarah Greenblatt, LMSW

ARE YOU STILL MY
FAMILY: POST ADOPTION
SIBLING VISITATION
Sarah Greenblatt, LMSW
Randi Mandelbaum, Clinical Professor
Dawn J. Post, Esq.
Kim Hawkins, Moderator
BACKGROUND
•  Sibling relationships
largely ignored in social
science research & child
welfare laws until mid
1990’s.
•  Mid 1990’s state
legislatures initiated
regulations and legislation
regarding sibling
placement and visitation in
foster care.
BACKGROUND CONTINUED
•  There was a push in the foster care
system towards maintaining sibling
contact with the increased awareness
of the protective value of sibling
contact.
•  Agencies were required to justify why
they placed siblings in different homes
and needed to promote visits between
siblings in different homes.
TODAY’S CONVERSATION
•  As of 2008, states must now make reasonable
efforts to place siblings together and maintain
their connections while in foster care
•  Expanding the focus to post-adoption
connections is the next step needed.
•  Today’s panel considers why and how to do this.
SIBLINGS IN FOSTER CARE
•  The national Adoption Information Clearinghouse estimates that between
65-85% of U.S. children in foster care come from sibling groups
•  Studies of sibling groups suggest that 60-73% of children in foster care
have siblings that have also been placed in foster care
Hegar, R.L. (2005) Sibling placement in foster care and adoption: An overview of international research. Children and Youth
Services Review. 27, 717-739.
•  Siblings who entered the foster care system within 30 days of each other
had almost 4 times the odds of residing together than children who
entered care at different times
Shlonshy, A. Bellamy, J, Elkins, J., & Ashare, C.J. (2005). The ties that bind: A cross-sectional analysis of siblings in foster care.
Journal of Social Service Research, 29(3), 27-53.
SIBLING CONNECTIONS MATTER
•  Children who are abused and neglected by their caregivers
have especially strong ties to one another and separating them
may cause additional trauma from ambiguous losses and unaddressed grief
Washington, K. (2007). Research review: Sibling placement in foster care: A review of the evidence. Child and Family Social Work,
12, 426-433.
•  Preschoolers placed with siblings had a higher rate of
psychological problems prior to placement, but despite this
history, showed significantly fewer emotional and behavioral
problems in placement than those separated from their
siblings.
•  Children in care are likely to form sibling-like relationships
with non-related children in their placements
Tarren-Seeney, M. & Hazell, P. (2005). The mental health and socialization of siblings in care. Child and Youth Services Review. 27,
821-843.
SIBLING CONNECTIONS MATTER
•  Child development research is
clear that sibling contact is
supportive of positive identity
development, enhances ability
to attach and connect to others,
and can counter-balance
negative stress
•  Loss of sibling contact has a lifelong impact on emotional
attachment, well-being and
identity formation.
LOSS AND GRIEF HURTS …
PRE AND POST-ADOPTION
Separation
Brings:
• Confusion
• Self-Blame
• Anxiety
• Sadness
• Depression
• Anger
Separation Leads
to:
•  Withdrawal
•  Acting out
•  Mis-diagnoses
•  Over-medication
•  Family stress
Despite it being
widely accepted and
well-documented
that continued
sibling contact postadoption is
beneficial and has
positive effects on
identity and leads to
pro-social behavior
Many siblings in the foster care
system lose touch once one of
those siblings is adopted – with
predictably negative outcomes for
children and their new families.
IMPORTANCE OF SIBLING
RELATIONSHIP TO THE
CHILDREN
•  Chapin Hall Study: 81% of young
adults reported having contact with
biological family member at least once
per week. Contact was most often with
siblings. These were also the people
they reported feeling “most close.”
•  Other studies find siblings, especially
older siblings, as a source of support
and special confidant.
PROMOTES CHILD WELL-BEING
•  Sibling relationship has been
found to have a
on children’s
placement
•  Relationship helps promote
and
SIBLING CONNECTIONS POSTADOPTION MATTER
•  Can prevent the negative impact of ambiguous loss
and unresolved grief
•  Can convey respect & acceptance of who children
are and where they’ve come from
•  Can promote the range of peer relationships
children need to successfully navigate adolescence
and early adulthood
•  Can be protective of the adoptive family relationship
itself – promoting openness, emotional health and
positive identity formation
FAMILY LAW
• Relationship that is not supported
in the law.
• “Family law is tightly focused on
two relationships: the bond
between spouses and the bond
between parent and child.”
(Prof. Jill Elaine Hasdey)
FOSTERING CONNECTIONS 2008
Reasonable efforts shall be made
(A)  to place siblings removed from their home in the
same foster care, kinship guardianship, or
adoptive placement, unless the State documents
that such a joint placement would be contrary to
the safety or well-being of any of the siblings;
(B)  in the case of siblings removed from their home
who are not so jointly placed, to provide for
frequent visitation or other ongoing interaction
between the siblings, unless that State documents
that frequent visitation or other ongoing
interaction would be contrary to the safety or wellbeing of any of the siblings.
VISITATION STATUTES
•  Most states have 3rd
party visitations statutes
•  12 statutes specifically
mention siblings
•  Many now require a
showing of harm
pursuant to Troxel v.
Granville
CALIFORNIA
Court may not terminate parental rights if
“there would be substantial interference with a
child's sibling relationship, taking into consideration
the nature and extent of the relationship, including,
but not limited to, whether the child was raised with
a sibling in the same home, whether the child shared
significant common experiences or has existing
close and strong bonds with a sibling, and whether
ongoing contact is in the child's best interest,
including the child's long-term emotional interest, as
compared to the benefit of legal permanence
through adoption.”
OPEN ADOPTION
•  Trend toward allowing some openness
in adoption
•  More child-centered
•  Flexible concept ranging from preadoption exchange of info to some
degree of post adoption contact
•  Many are voluntary and not all are
enforceable
ADOPTION STATUTES AND
SIBLINGS
7 states permit Post-Adoption Contact
(Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Maryland,
Mass.,Nevada, and South Carolina)
These states specifically address
siblings, and allow visits to be ordered
without consent of adoptive parents
ADOPTION STATUTES
CONTINUED
•  Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, and Mass.: limit
application to child welfare cases
•  Illinois, MD, and Mass.: require a sibling to
petition
•  Arkansas: visitation does not terminate if ordered
prior to adoption being finalized
•  Florida: child has the right to have the court
consider the appropriateness of post adoption
contact
ADOPTION STATUTES
CONTINUED
16 additional states: allow
contact WITH consent of
adoptive parents
ADVOCACY IN THE COURTS
•  Courts over the years
have ordered ongoing
sibling contact preadoption based upon
and
•  Constitutional Right?
OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS
•  Does sibling relationship end when parental
rights are terminated?
•  When do parental rights vest in adoptive
parent?
•  What is obligation of State in ensuring that all
of child’s needs are met (including need to
maintain relationship with sibling(s))?
•  Doesn’t adoptive parent accept some
interference from State when he/she adopts
from child welfare system?
PERMANENCY
•  Broad and flexible
definition of
permanency is
needed.
•  Encompassing
physical, legal,
relational, and cultural
components
PERMANENCY CONTINUED
•  Casey Family Services:
Permanency means having an enduring family
relationship that is safe and meant to last a lifetime;
offers the legal rights and social status of full family
membership; provides for physical, emotional,
social, cognitive and spiritual well-being; and
assures lifelong connections to extended family,
siblings, other significant adults, family history and
traditions, race, and ethnic heritage, culture,
religion, and language.
KNOW HOW – THE POSSIBILITY
PROJECT
WHAT LITIGATION LOOKS
LIKE
CONNECTION TO BROKEN
ADOPTIONS – CLC DATA
•  More common for siblings to be living together after
a broken adoption than before it
•  A large percentage of the broken adoption cases
involve sibling groups that have been split up
•  Adult siblings often serve as a resource after an
adoption breaks
•  In cases where the adoption remained intact, the
adoptive parent promoted regular visits between
the child and the siblings
•  Voluntary Placements
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE ON A
POLICY LEVEL?
•  Broader conception of “permanency” in the child
welfare system
•  Judges thinking about rights and interests of the
family and sibling group as a whole
•  State laws
•  Practices of caseworkers and attorneys for the child
or other advocates
WHAT CAN BE DONE ON A CASEBY-CASE BASIS?
•  Conversations with the child rather than
presumptions.
•  Who is important to you?
•  If you could plan a perfect day, where would
you go? Who would be there?
•  Drawing out a family tree
•  Thinking ahead. What will the client want when
they’re 13? When they’re 23?
EDUCATION
•  Post-adoption sibling visitation would be “just
another shackle around a prospective adoptive
family”
•  Social science research
•  Approach from a place that lack of contact causes
harm
•  Post-adoption sibling visitation does not have to be
all or nothing
•  Talking with the adoptive parent long before the
adoption is finalized
DECISION MAKERS - ASK
QUESTIONS
•  What is frequency and quality of visitation pre-adoption?
•  Does the child have siblings who are not being adopted into
the same family?
•  Do the parents plan to have the child continue to stay in contact
with his or her siblings?
•  What is scope and extent of authority of decision makers?
•  At a minimum, ask caseworkers, practitioners, and preadoptive parents what is being explored, and then use this
information to direct sibling contact or visitation postadoption if appropriate.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
• Normalize
visitation
• Quality
therapeutic
interventions
USE OF CURRENT TOOLS
•  Raise issue of sibling visitation as early as
possible
•  Where jurisdiction permits court to order
visitation – push for it
•  Even where court’s authority is less clear
(parens patriae or equitable relief), try to
build case that children will be harmed.