Visiting Your Brothers and Sisters

While in foster care, you generally have the right to visit your family and other people (like teachers, people at your church, trusted adults, and friends). A judge can decide that it is not in your best interest to visit any of these people. Before your final court hearing, you should talk to your caseworker and attorney about asking the judge to give you the right to visit your brothers and sisters after you turn 18 years old. You can also ask the judge to give you these rights at the final hearing, but it is best to work this out with your caseworker and attorney before that hearing.

If you do not know where your brothers and sisters are or have not been given the chance to visit your family (including your brothers and sisters), then you should ask your caseworker, attorney, CASA, guardian ad litem, and judge to provide you with information about them and their whereabouts and why there might be restrictions on you seeing them. Once you leave foster care, Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) staff should be able to help you find siblings who are still in foster care or aged out of care in the last five years or so.

You can find Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) staff online here. You can also contact the Texas Foster Youth Justice Project.

After you turn 18, you have the right to ask the judge directly to give you the right to visit your siblings as long as CPS is the reason you are separated from them. You will have to show the judge that it is in your siblings’ best interest to have visits with you and that visits won’t harm them. Contact the Texas Foster Youth Justice Project for help to file a petition for sibling access with the court.