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National Child Welfare Leaders Endorse Federal Call for Reform To Reduce High Number of African-American Children in Foster Care

Washington, D.C. – Members of the powerful U.S. House Ways and Means Committee heard from leaders and advocates today concerned about disparities in the child welfare system during a Capitol Hill briefing held by the Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare (the Alliance). 

Citing the need for all children to grow up in safe and caring families with equal access to opportunity, the Alliance has called the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the over-representation of African-American children in the child welfare system a “clarion call to action” for everyone who cares about the nation’s children and families.  Leaders of the Alliance, representing the Casey legacy foundations, commended the GAO and the House Ways and Means Committee for raising awareness about the over-representation of African-American children in foster care and for recognizing this as an urgent problem that requires immediate action.

“Our overarching objective must be to ensure that every child and family, regardless of race, culture or ethnicity, receives the best and most appropriate support at each and every encounter in the system,’ said William C. Bell, president and CEO of Casey Family Programs. “By focusing on improving the well-being of children and families of color, we have an opportunity to create a more fair and equitable system for all children and families and to substantially reduce the need for foster care in the generations ahead.”

The report, African American Children in Foster Care, found that African-American children are much more likely to languish in foster care, even though research shows no significant difference in the overall incidence of child abuse and neglect between African Americans and Caucasians within similar income groups. The GAO also documented unequal treatment of African-American children in receiving services from child welfare agencies: they stay in foster care longer; they are moved to different foster homes more frequently; they are less likely to be reunited with their own families; and they have less chance of finding an alternative or adoptive family willing to make a lifelong permanent commitment.  These differences in the odds that African American children in the child welfare system will find a permanent home are evident even after adjusting for income differences.

“We must all commit today to sustained action to tackle this issue for so many children and youth in foster care,” said Douglas W. Nelson, president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  “The basic human need for a family connection that can be counted on for life must be recognized as essential for all children and families, including those who interact with the child welfare system.”

The GAO recommendations include amending child welfare financing; improving technical assistance and accountability; expanding community supports and services, and; increasing cultural competencies of child welfare leaders and staff.  The Alliance proposes several specific action steps:

• Improve Child Welfare Financing to Promote Permanency – Federal financing for child welfare should support programs and services that encourage lifelong family connections for children. This requires amending the federal financing structure to promote more family preservation and prevention efforts that keep children from entering into care and help increase safe reunification, guardianship care, kinship care, and post-permanency efforts.  Congress should also increase flexibility under Title IV-E, to provide incentives for services for vulnerable families that include a broader range of support for permanent placements, and allow more access to services for relatives caring for their kin children.
  
  
• Implement Strength-Based Decision Making Approaches in All Systems That Serve Children and Families -  Federal resources should provide supports and incentives for approaches that improve the quality and racial equity of child welfare decisions, through proven practices such as team decision making, family group conferencing, and cultural education and training.
  
  
• Increase Involvement of Families in the Development and Implementation of Child Welfare Policies and Practices - Policies and resources should ensure more active participation of youth, birth parents and families in the decisions that shape their lives and the quality of life of their communities.
  
  
• Enhance the Capacity of Federally Funded Data Collection and Reporting Systems – Identifying racial disparities in the experiences of families and children served by the child welfare system is essential. Annual state reports about the safety, permanence and well-being of children who have contact with the child welfare system should compare outcomes by race at each of the key decision points, including initial report, decision to remove a child from the birth family, movement from one foster home to another, reunification, placement with kin or adoption.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should adapt the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) to track outcomes for children in the child welfare system by race.  
  
  
• Report on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Assessing State Child Welfare Systems - The Federal assessment of state performance—the Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) process—should determine the extent to which racial disparities and inequities continue to persist. Specifically, the Alliance recommends that the review process include performance measures that highlight state progress on reducing racial, ethnic and cultural disparities, and that capture the diverse range of intervention strategies appropriate for different groups and circumstances.  While this portion of the Federal review process should not be tied to financial penalties, we should not miss this opportunity to evaluate, document and review progress in reducing racial disparities.
  
  
• Expand Cultural Competence Training to Adequately Address Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes – All child welfare and child protective services staff and family/juvenile court personnel should receive training to become better prepared to work with culturally and racially diverse populations. This training will help to ensure fair treatment and equal access to quality services and programs.
  
  
• Provide Family-Strengthening and Prevention Services –We know many families, regardless of their racial background, come to the attention of the child protection system due to poverty, mental health problems, substance abuse, domestic violence, and chronic family stress.  By increasing public investments in strategies that support parents and strengthen families—such as child care services; job training, housing, financial literacy and other strategies to address poverty; mental health diagnosis and treatment; and substance abuse treatment—we can avoid unnecessary child removal for all families, and thereby reduce the odds that African-American children will experience foster care placement.

The Alliance commends the Report for acknowledging the positive work that is already taking place to address disproportionality in state and county child welfare systems. State and county systems must work in their own communities to address the problems of disproportionate representation, disparate treatment, and poor outcomes for African American children. Federal and state policies and solutions must support the efforts of these state and county systems to effect positive change.

About the Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare – Since 2004, the Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity has worked to develop and implement a national, multiyear campaign to address racial disparities and reduce the disproportionate representation of children from certain racial or ethnic communities in the nation’s child welfare system. The Alliance includes the Annie E. Casey Foundation and its direct service agency Casey Family Services, Casey Family Programs, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and parents and alumni of foster care.  The Race Matters Consortium and the Black Administrators in Child Welfare (BACW) are also partners in this work.

About Casey Family Programs
Casey Family Programs is the largest national operating foundation whose sole mission is to provide and improve – and ultimately prevent the need for – foster care. The foundation draws on over 40 years of experience and expert research and analysis to improve the lives of children and youth in foster care in two important ways: by providing direct services and support to foster families, and by promoting improvements in child welfare practice and policy. The Seattle-based foundation was established in 1966 by UPS founder Jim Casey, and has a current endowment of more than $2.2 billion.

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