Instead, the Massachusetts courts have given custody of Hugo to his aunt. Lawyers representing Hugo are asking the United States Supreme Court to hear their plea for keeping the two kids together. The court has ruled that parent-child relationships are so protected. The strain on that system may help explain a recent move away from programs that emphasize preserving the family, which keep children in ostensibly temporary placements while efforts are made to rehabilitate their parents. One impetus behind this is simply cost.
Foster care is expensive, and has become the country's fastest-growing entitlement program.
Even adding in the cost of incentives and tax breaks, adoption looks like a bargain. In practice, social services departments routinely separate siblings as they struggle to fit increasing numbers of children into limited numbers of places. Sometimes, children are moved around so frequently that they lose track of each other entirely. I figure they're probably pretty lonely, because they have no blood relations, and they weren't born into the family they live in. Another young man spent his early years taking care of several younger brothers and sisters, until Child Protective Services stepped in and put them in separate placements.