METHODOLOGY for Siblings in Child Welfare Supervised Foster Care

This report provides information on the placement of sibling groups in foster care.  The data produced is by county, by facility type, and by number of siblings (with one being a single child with no siblings).  The first row in each placement type is the total for all numbers of children (including children with no siblings), the second row contains information on only the children with one or more sibling in the system.  The remaining rows in each facility type correspond to the number of children in the sibling group (again, 1 means a single child with no other siblings in the system).  The column labeled ‘Placement with All Siblings’ contains information for the sibling groups that had all children placed together in the same facility.  The column labeled ‘Placements with All/Some Siblings’ contains information for the sibling groups that had at least 2 and up to (and including) all siblings placed together. 

The sibling counters are based on a point-in-time data set and a set of sibling identifier and placement address variables.  The point-in-time data set is an unduplicated count of children active in the CWS/CMS system at a specific point in time during the analysis year.  The sibling identifier variables were derived from the Client_Relationship table in CWS/CMS, and include all whole, half, and step brothers and sisters, as well as maternal siblings. Placement location was determined using the Identifier from the Placement_Home table. Therefore, duplicate Placement_Home records may result in an undercount of siblings placed together, if the siblings are not linked to the same Placement_Home record.