This petition is an urgent appeal for children's basic human rights. Over 80% of children in foster care, after facing the daunting loss of their parents and homes, are further subjected to the emotional ordeal of being separated from their siblings. This system, established for their protection, is failing in one major aspect – preserving the sibling bond among children in foster care. The falling apart of sibling groups not only further intensifies their ordeal but also has a considerable negative impact on their mental health and healing process.

 The separation of siblings in foster care has a massive negative impact on a majority of the affected children and youth. Youth mental health providers report increased anxiety, stress, depression, negative behaviors and suicidal ideation when they are separated from their siblings in care. Which honestly makes sense, after being removed from a possibly traumatic environment or losing their parents or guardians, kids need someone familiar to lean on and support them during what’s obviously a very scary transition. Especially if they’re very young and can’t understand what’s happening. A sibling can provide much needed comfort and support during an experience that could affect a child for the rest of their lives. They could form attachment issues because they grow up afraid that they’ll be taken away from everything they love if anything goes wrong, or PTSD from watching something like, say body bags being loaded into the ambulance or the first parental figure they’ve ever known being taken away in a police car. 

Not to mention, what if they end up adopted? I’m fairly certain that despite what the media says, siblings are not usually split up for this unless absolutely necessary. Don’t children have the right to know the whereabouts of their family? And if they’re adopted while too young to remember their biological parents, siblings can help them remember their identities and help the family embrace it. 

The annual budget of the Children’s Bureau of the  Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is approximately $9.8,000,000,000 while, and stop me, if I’m wrong, but the Foundation for Economic Education reports that in the last year, the government has spent $365,000 promoting circuses in city parks, $12,000,000 on a pickleball complex in Nevada, $10,000,000,000 on empty office space, which they only use about 25% of, $300,000 on the National Birdwatchers Society, just for a start. That’s $10,012,665,000. The estimated cost to foster a child is: 

Children ages 0-5: $32.10 per day 
Children ages 6-12: $36.38 per day 
Children ages 13 and up: $38.00 per day 

That much money could fund the yearly foster care stipends of 11,716.5 babies and toddlers, 13,278.7 kids and preteens, and 13,870 teenagers, with $10,012,664,990.2 leftover, and that’s not even half of what we’re wasting taxpayer money on. 

Considering these facts, this petition is a plea for changes in the foster care system to ensure siblings are not unnecessarily separated. Uphold a child's right to familial connection even in adversity. So, let's act now, and sign this petition for the better future of these children.