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Street Roots • May 19-25, 2017
Foster Children’s Sibling Bill of Rights becomes law
Gov. Kate Brown signs the legislation that foster youths brought before lawmakers
BY EMILY GREEN
S T A F F W R IT E R
n May 17, Gov. Kate Brown signed
the Oregon Foster Children’s Sibling
Bill of Right into law.
Oregon Foster Youth Connection, a
youth-led advocacy group composed of
current and former foster youth, brought
House Bill 2216 before lawmakers because
several of its members had experienced
painful separations from their siblings while
in state custody.
Each regular legislative session, the
group brings a bill it believes will improve
the lives of Oregon’s foster youth to Salem.
So far, every bill they’ve had introduced has
passed.
This year’s legislation establishes a
written document outlining foster children’s
right to be placed into a foster home with
their siblings when it’s safe and appropriate.
When they cannot be placed together, they
will now have the right to maintain contact
with their siblings, including their right to
transportation to visit their siblings in
person. They also have the right to more
private and less restrictive communication
with siblings, when appropriate.
It also requires that a foster child is
notified immediately of a sibling’s placement
changes or catastrophic events affecting a
sibling.
O
As Street Roots reported in February,
this element of the bill was crucial to foster
youth Raven Bowman, who was not placed
in the same home with her younger brother
when he was killed in a car crash in
November 2014.
No one thought to notify his siblings, and
Bowman’s older sister didn’t learn of her
brother’s death until the day before his
memorial.
Bowman described the separation
between herself and her siblings while in
foster care as being like torture.
“I didn’t know if they were OK,
and it was fear. It grew every single
time I couldn’t talk to them or
didn’t know what was going on,”
she told Street Roots in
January. She often couldn’t
make contact due to
restrictions on phone access and rules
against using social media in the home
where she was placed.
Bowman helped draft the bill and was in
Salem Wednesday morning to witness the
governor sign it into law.
“I’m excited for future kids who don’t
have to go through what I’ve been through,”
said Bowman.
“It doesn’t feel real right now,” she said,
adding that since the bill passed Oregon’s
House and Senate unanimously, it’s all she’s
been able to talk about.
The bill also requires that foster children
receive notice of their sibling rights within
60 days of their placement into foster care
and after any placement change. They can
also request that their attorney advocate for
contact and visits with siblings, and if they
are denied visits, they must be provided
with an explanation.
Additionally, they have the right to be
placed with foster parents and under the
care of caseworkers who have been
trained on the importance of sibling
relationships.
Lisa McMahon, the
program director at
Oregon Foster Youth
Connection, said
Oregon’s
Department of
DHS, where Oregon’s child welfare system
is housed, invited a foster youth to
participate in caseworker training and
provide their perspective.
McMahon said the next step her
organization will focus on is figuring out
how to roll out the sibling bill of rights.
This summer, Oregon Foster Youth
Connection members will attend a foster
youth camp, Camp to Belong, to get
additional input from other youths about
what they would like to see in the bill.
Once the bill of rights is adopted, when
foster children believe their sibling rights
have been violated, their recourse will likely
be to bring it to the attention of Oregon’s
Foster Care Ombudsman, their attorney,
their DHS caseworker or their Court
Appointed Special Advocate, said
McMahon.
“I’m really excited these youths feel
that they have been heard,” she said,
“and that feels pretty powerful to
me.”
H um an S erv ices,
or DHS, has
already begun the
process of
incorporating
foster youth
input into sibling
importance
training.
She said
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