OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- What would your life be like if you never had the opportunity to grow up with your brother or sister? If you never had that person to share your childhood with, to fight with, to stick up for and to rely on, what kind of person would you be today? Unfortunately, many of the children currently in foster homes in Oklahoma may someday know the answer to those questions. On any given day, more than 40 percent of the 5,900 children in foster care in Oklahoma are separated from their siblings due to the lack of quality foster homes.

“Consider the situation we face all the time where a sibling group comes into custody and there aren’t any homes that have enough beds to take all of them,” said Roland St. John, programs field representative, Oklahoma Department of Human Services Children and Family Services Division. “We don’t have the wisdom of Solomon, yet we have to tell these children that they can’t be with their siblings because there’s no home that can take all of them.”

According to St. John, keeping siblings together minimizes the trauma of the children being removed from their parents because of abuse and neglect. Separation from their parents is difficult, but adding the loss of their siblings compounds the loss.

“Being separated is especially challenging for the youngest sibling,” said St. John. “Often the younger siblings are closer to their brothers and sisters than their parents. Even though getting these children out of harmful and dangerous situations is the best thing for them, an abusive home is still the only home they’ve ever known. To separate them from their parents, their home, their pets and then their siblings…that’s everything to them.”

If you or someone you know would like to experience the rewards of becoming a foster parent, or if you would like to become a volunteer, please call 1-800-376-9729, or click on http://www.okdhs.org/. To report suspected child abuse or neglect, call 1-800-522-3511, or contact your local OKDHS human services center.

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