Anchorage lawmaker pushes legislation to protect sibling ties for Alaska foster youth
- Alaska Beacon
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Under Alaska law, adoption ends the legal relationship between children and birth families — including siblings. Foster youth have called for changes to the law to preserve contact
By Corinne Smith
Alaska Beacon
Alaska foster youth could see their ties to siblings legally protected through the adoption process, under legislation proposed last year in the Alaska House of Representatives.
House Bill 157 would maintain the legal relationship between siblings through the process of adoption, and also encourage adoptive families to support sibling relationships. It is sponsored by Rep. Andrew Gray, an Anchorage Democrat, who is a foster parent himself.
“Sibling relationships are among the most powerful and enduring connections a person can have,” Gray said, in opening remarks of a hearing on the issue on Wednesday. “For children in foster care, siblings are often a remaining link to their past, their identity and their family. These bonds provide emotional stability, comfort and a sense of belonging during an experience that is confusing and traumatic.”
Currently, under Alaska law, adoption ends the legal relationship between adopted children and their birth family, including siblings. The bill preserves the legal relationship between siblings, despite adoption and termination of parental rights. Siblings would continue to be legally recognized, including for siblings by blood, marriage or adoption by one or both parents.
Gray introduced the bill last year but it has not yet been scheduled for committee hearings. This week, he invited a group of current and former foster youth with Facing Foster Care in Alaska, a non-profit advocacy organization, to testify on the issue to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. In an emotional hearing, youth shared personal stories of separation from siblings, and urged legal protections for maintaining sibling relationships as vital.
“When my siblings and I were separated, daily things became harder to do and life was harder to get through,” said Tali Stone, who was separated from her five siblings when they entered state custody. “I went from laughing, sharing bed with my older sister, and playing with my younger siblings, to not knowing where they lived, who they lived with, and missing huge milestones and moments in their lives.”
Lotus Nickoli of Fairbanks testified to the fear and uncertainty he felt when he was separated from his eight siblings.
“It’s just more scary, like knowing that they’re going to be going through different situations, different foster homes and whatnot, different foster parents, like you don’t know who they’re with and what these foster parents are capable of,” he said, breaking down into tears.
“Siblings should not be separated,” he said.
In Alaska, the Office of Children’s Services, which runs the state’s foster care system, is required to “make reasonable efforts” to place siblings together in a foster placement if siblings are living in the same home when taken into state custody. If siblings are not placed together, case workers must document how reasonable efforts were made. The case worker is also charged with connecting siblings and providing opportunities for contact, “if it is in the best interest of the child to maintain contact.”
Amanda Metivier, director of Facing Foster Care, said the foster youth have called for legislation to prevent sibling separation because the reality is often youth are having great difficulties in maintaining contact when taken into state custody and after adoption.
“So as a state, we’ve been experiencing a decline in the number of foster homes in recent years, and so it becomes harder and harder for OCS to keep children together,” she said.
“The unfortunate truth is that if you have a young person that moves into a foster family or a relative, and the permanent goal is going to be adoption, and their siblings are in another place, they become legal strangers,” she said.
Trinity Beltz said when OCS intervened and took her, her eight siblings and two stepsisters into state care, they were all separated in foster placements. While she could see some of her siblings, she OCS barred her from seeing her stepsisters because the agency claimed they were not related.
“Nobody updated me on where they were, and that really broke me,” she said. “I haven’t seen them since they were at least four years old, and looking at them now, they’re already almost seven to eight.”
“But I do want to still be their sister, and not be like a stranger to them,” she added. “To me, that would break my heart completely.”
The bill was introduced last year and was referred to the House Health and Social Services Committee.
• Corinne Smith started reporting in Alaska in 2020, serving as a radio reporter for several local stations across the state including in Petersburg, Haines, Homer and Dillingham. She spent two summers covering the Bristol Bay fishing season. Originally from Oakland, California, she got her start as a reporter, then morning show producer, at KPFA Radio in Berkeley. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
