My niece and nephew, and their younger sister are in foster care, but we, their late father's family, are being shut out of their lives. Illinois Lutheran Child and Family Services refuse to let us be a part of their lives, and the mother's family refuse to let us see them. Not to mention, the investigator did not thoroughly check to see which family members are appropriate, and instead placed the kids with a family member they barely know at the request of the mother's mother. They did not even call the mother. My niece and nephew have lost their father, and now they are losing his family, too, all because the mother's family wants to control them, and LCFS is letting it happen. I want to make a change in the child services policy that states that all family that can be involved in the care of children, especially those who have relationships with the kids. It is detrimental and traumatic for kids to be kept from people that they know and love for petty reasons and because LCFS or DCFS won't tell foster parents what it means to have foster children. No child should be kept from their family. Children need as much family as possible in their lives, especially in hard times like these. I understand it is hard for child services to keep up with all of the kids, but I think that there is a way that we can do this, maybe with more funding, volunteer programs, etc., to be able to keep kids and extended family in each others' lives.