06 May 2008

Brothers and Sisters Forever

One of the most enlightened bills adopted this legislative session by the Colorado General Assembly brings a new humanity to the foster care system. Its premise is simple. Parental abuse and neglect that cause a termination of parental rights do not terminate sibling relationships, and siblings in foster care should be entitled to visit each other on a reasonably regular basis.

We don't have to completely sacrifice our commitment to families as a unit, even when the public interest in protecting children overrides a parent's right to raise their children as they see fit.

2 comments:

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

An Illinois resolution creating a task force on the subject has some notable facts related to this issue.

Anonymous said...

Foster kids are supposed to remain together as sibling groups - and wouldn't common sense call for this already? Oh, I forgot. Caseworkers have no common sense.

There are far more pressing concerns to clean up the department of human services.
They are more concerned with CYA than the well-being of any child.