When a child is removed by cps in CA and adopted, will the child ever know if it has brothers, or sisters?

If the adopted child had 1 brother from the mom and a sister from the dad at the time of the removal and adoption and then a couple years after the removal and adoption the mother or father had more children, will the child who was removed and adopted out through the state cps or cfs ever know that he or she has brothers or sisters? Is there any way for the child to know who the birth parents are as well? Thanks to all.
Additional Details
Will the adopted child know about the any and all siblings, or only the siblings that were already born before the removal? How would they find out about siblings that were born afterwards? Thank you.

Dorian

Assuming the child wasn't old enough at removal to have memories of parents/siblings...then the child would only learn of the parents/siblings if the adoptive parents decided to tell them. Adopting through CPS is a little different than through an agency. Part of the adoption process is called the 'telling.' This is where the potential adoptive parents come into the office and read through the child's entire file. They also read copies of the court reports from the case. This is very detailed and will list any siblings and biological family that is known by the agency. It will also list known medical history, psychiatric history, drug use history, etc...of the parents. The adoptive parents will know specifics about the case, such as the type of abuse the child suffered, the reasons for removal, etc. If the child has siblings at the time of adoption, that information will be part of the telling and the adoptive parents will know.

Some adoptive parents allow continued visitation or some type of contact with the parents but it depends on the age of the child and the removal reasons. There are some cases where any contact would be a significant danger to the child. Adoptive parents of older children are more likely to continue contact than adoptive parents of babies. Only if the adoptive parents have some contact with the birth parents would they even know there are siblings born later in life. That isn't something CPS tracks and reports to the adoptive parents. However, if the parents have another child that is later removed by CPS then they will often call the adoptive parents to see if they are interested in adopting the new child so the siblings will be together (this is usually in cases where due to the extreme history of abuse reunification services are not offered and CPS asks for termination of parental rights at initial removal). However the adoptive parents are under no obligation to consider taking placement of the new child.

If there are siblings in an adoption case that are not placed together then the adoptive parents are given the contact information for the siblings' adoptive parents. They are encouraged to continue to have some type of sibling contact but it is not required of them. In my own cases, I'd say only about 20% want sibling contact if the child they are adopting is under the age of 2. And very few of those parents want to continue contact with the birth parents. Adoptive parents of older children are usually much more open to sibling contact and at least some from of contact or information exchange with the birth parents.

So basically - the adoptive parents would know there were siblings prior to removal but not siblings that were born after, unless they kept in some from of contact with the birth parents. The child would know of these siblings only if the adoptive parents decided to tell them. The same is true for the birth parent information. If the adoptive parents shared the information with the child, he or she would know - the child would be able to read all the cps reports and know the parents' full histories and could decide if they wanted to initiate any contact.

Pretty Kittys Gt Klaws (=^_^=)

God just close your legs, you already had one child taken away!!
geez

tigger

The adopted child would only find out that they were adopted if the adoptive parents decided to tell them. And, no, as records are closed in California, adoptees currently have NO legal right to any information other than "non-ID information" about the parents which may or may not be true. but certainly no right to find out about any siblings. An adoptee can live their whole lives without finding out any of this.

Heli12345

Only if they tell them that they were adopted, and if they want to try to find the real parents.

yes

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