The juvenile court judge has an important role to play regarding the joint placement of siblings in foster care and ongoing sibling contact. The court can require information from the caseworker regarding sibling placement and contacts at each hearing. The court can also require the attorney/GAL for the child to report to the court on that issue. At each court hearing, the judge can talk with each child about their placements and contacts with siblings and learn about the child’s desires. Judge Len Edwards (2011) states that “judges will find that attention to sibling contact will accomplish the law’s goals and be greatly appreciated by the children appearing in court.”
California law (AB 579) requires that a social worker, probation officer and/or court clerk to provide hearing notices to a youth’s siblings who are 10 years old or older.
Florida (2008) developed The Office of Court Improvement’s Fact sheet: Keeping Siblings Together which reviews federal law on sibling placement and Florida statutory requirements that court make every possible effort to keep siblings in the same home.
The Minnesota Judges Juvenile Protection Benchbook states that under Minnesota law, the court must review whether siblings are placed together in foster care at the Emergency Protective Care (EPC) Hearing and at every hearing thereafter until the siblings are together or there is a determination that joint placement is not in the best interest of one of the siblings.
New York State court rules require that if a child has a sibling or half-sibling removed from the home whose permanency hearing is scheduled before the court, the date of that permanency hearing must be the same as the date for the sibling’s or half-sibling’s permanency hearing unless the sibling or half-sibling was removed on a juvenile delinquency or person in need of supervision petition or unless either sibling has been freed for adoption.
