New law keeping siblings together adds to placement problems

David Kihara

Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005 | 8:39 a.m.

A bill passed this year by the Legislature aiming to keep siblings together in foster care is having the unintended effect of holding children in the county's emergency foster care shelters, the county's family services director said.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 42, was signed into law by Gov. Kenny Guinn in June and went into effect Oct. 1. It states that it is in the best interest of children going into foster care to remain with their siblings.

Yet because of the lack of foster care homes available in the county, more than 100 children are remaining at the county's already overcrowded emergency foster care shelters because there are not enough homes to take siblings as groups, said Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the Department of Family Services.

"It is difficult to find placements for siblings, and that is one of the factors for the number of kids in the shelters," she said.

Children often thrive more in family foster situations than in temporary foster care situations, said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno.

In December 2004, there were 23 sibling groups, representing a total of 69 kids, in temporary shelter care needing placement into a foster home. By this month, the number increased to 29 sibling groups and a total of 105 children, said Klein-Rothschild.

The majority of the sibling groups are staying at group homes at Child Haven, the county's emergency temporary shelter care facility, while they wait for foster home placements.

The population of Child Haven, which fluctuates greatly from day to day, was 190 one day last week, Klein-Rothschild said. The shelter has a target population of about 112, she said.

There are about 250 children currently needing foster homes in the county.

Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who supported the bill, does not believe that the law is responsible for children languishing at the county's temporary shelter.

"It's kind of offensive to say the law is at fault," Buckley said. "It is the county's job to recruit homes willing to take large groups."

Buckley said the Legislature created the bill because of the huge number of siblings in foster care who were being separated once the county removed them from their parent or guardian.

Separating siblings into different foster care homes after the county had already removed them from their parent's house "re-victimized" the children by eliminating constant contact with their only familiar source of support, she said.

In 2004 the Legislature conducted a survey of siblings in foster care. The survey found that there were 429 sibling groups in foster care in Southern Nevada, for a total of 1,166 children. At least 690 of those children were placed with their brothers or sisters in foster homes. But the survey also found that 476 were separated.

"The Legislature found that to be unacceptable," Buckley said. "We were failing our children."

Leslie, who also supported the bill, said the number of siblings remaining in emergency shelters underlines the pressing need for more foster families.

The county, however, says it is doing everything it can. The county is currently trying to recruit 400 foster families to take children in need of placements, Klein-Rothschild said.

"There is a crisis in needing homes," she said.

The county has begun several campaigns and community outreach programs to recruit more foster families, said county spokeswoman Gina Olivares. Besides ads on television and bus shelter posters, the county has worked with MGM Mirage to attract more foster families, she said.

County Manager Thom Reilly, who supports the bill, said he does not consider longer stays in temporary shelter as necessarily bad because the alternative -- separating siblings -- could be much more devastating for children.

"Is it a challenge to keep the siblings together? Absolutely," Reilly said. "But we need to keep them together. Often times, (a sibling) is all they have."

David Kihara can be reached at 259-2330 or at davidk@lasvegassun.com