Siblings Split Between Home and Foster Care: Prevalence, Nature, and Outcomes

Recent research has shown that the child welfare system (CWS) often splits sibling groups, with at least one child removed to foster care and their siblings remaining at home. Yet, little is known about the nature and outcomes of this form of sibling separation. We use linked CWS and Medicaid data from Pennsylvania to address the following research questions: (1) What child, sibling and case characteristics predict split removal decisions? (2) Is having one or more siblings in foster care a risk factor for recurrent CWS involvement among children left at home? Multinomial regression and survival analyses are used to examine each, respectively. We find that child behavioral health issues are a common contributor to split removal decisions. Among children left at home, having siblings in foster care is associated with over three times the hazard of CWS reinvolvement within the first 100 days following the initial case-planning decision.