Contributing Factors to the Over Representation of African American Children in the Foster Care System

Contributing Factors to the Over Representation of African American Children in the Foster Care System
Author: LaMonica Shalice Montgomery
Publisher:
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2009
Genre: African American children
ISBN:

The focus of the study was the disproportionate number of African American children in the foster care system. The hypothesis stated that drug and alcohol use, and differential sentencing of incarcerated parents have lead to African American children being removed from their families more often than others. These factors also reduced the likelihood of these children returning to their families, thus keeping them in the foster care system longer than any other group of children.

Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Child Welfare System

Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Child Welfare System
Author: Alan J. Dettlaff
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2020-11-27
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030543145

This volume examines existing research documenting racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare systems, the underlying factors that contribute to these phenomena and the harms that result at both the individual and community levels. It reviews multiple forms of interventions designed to prevent and reduce disproportionality, particularly in states and jurisdictions that have seen meaningful change. With contributions from authorities and leaders in the field, this volume serves as the authoritative volume on the complex issue of child maltreatment and child welfare. It offers a central source of information for students and practitioners who are seeking understanding on how structural and institutional racism can be addressed in public systems.

African American Children in Foster Care: HHS and Congressional Actions Could Help Reduce Proportion in Care

African American Children in Foster Care: HHS and Congressional Actions Could Help Reduce Proportion in Care
Author: Kay Brown
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2009
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1437908918

A significantly greater proportion of African American children are in foster care than children of other races and ethnicities relative to their share of the general population. Given this situation, this report analyzes the: (1) major factors influencing their proportion in foster care; (2) strategies states and localities have implemented that appear promising; and (3) ways in which fed. policies may have influenced the proportion of African American children in foster care. This testimony is based on a report issued in July 2007 which included a nationwide survey; a review of research and policies; state site visits; analyses of child welfare data; and interviews with researchers, HHS officials, and other experts. It includes updates where possible. Charts and tables.

Decision-making

Decision-making
Author: Linda D. Alexander
Publisher:
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2010
Genre: Child welfare workers
ISBN:

Identifies factors that front-line social workers view as contributing to the overrepresentation of African American children in the foster care system and examines the strategies they suggest as ways to address overrepresentation. Focuses on the perceptions of the social workers, supervisors, and managers of one North Carolina county's Department of Social Services.

The Child Welfare Challenge

The Child Welfare Challenge
Author: Peter J. Pecora
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351141147

Using both historical and contemporary contexts, The Child Welfare Challenge examines major policy practice and research issues as they jointly shape child welfare practice and its future. This text focuses on families and children whose primary recourse to services has been through publicly funded child welfare agencies, and considers historical areas of service—foster care and adoptions, in-home family-centered services, child-protective services, and residential treatment services—where social work has an important role. This fourth edition features new content on child maltreatment and prevention that is informed by key conceptual frameworks informed by brain science, public health, and other research. This edition uses cross-sector data and more sophisticated predictive and other analytical processes to enhance planning and practice design. The authors have streamlined content on child protective services (CPS) to allow for new chapters on juvenile justice/cross-over youth, and international innovations, as well as more content on biology and brain science. The fourth edition includes a glossary of terms as well as instructor and student resource papers available online.

Fostering While Black

Fostering While Black
Author: Wendy J. Kennedy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2006
Genre: African American families
ISBN:

There is a mismatch in the foster care system between Black children and Black parents: the system is removing too many children from Black families and there are not enough Black family homes where they can be placed. To those that have pathologized Black families this is not surprising. However, given the work of scholars like Stack (1975) and Gutman (1977), it is clear that slavery did not eradicate long lasting cultural traditions of kin and fictive kin care. This study examines the foster care system through the eyes of Black parents who are seeking to foster to see why the mismatch exists. Their interviews reveal that Blacks' desires to foster are shaped by cultural traditions, the desire to help those in need, and to share their bounty of home, time, and love. However, they confront a system characterized by social control and by what they perceive as everyday racism. Keywords: African American, Black, Family, Child Welfare, Foster Care, Racism

Reparable Harm

Reparable Harm
Author: Lois M Davis
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2009-01-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0833046861

The Los Angeles area has the most severe traffic congestion in the United States. Trends in many of the underlying causal factors suggest that congestion will continue to worsen in the coming years, absent significant policy intervention. Excessive traffic congestion detracts from quality of life, is economically wasteful and environmentally damaging, and exacerbates social-justice concerns. Finding efficient and equitable strategies for mitigating congestion will therefore serve many social goals. The authors recommend strategies for reducing congestion in Los Angeles County that could be implemented and produce significant improvements within about five years. To manage peak-hour auto travel, raise transportation revenue, improve alternative transportation options, and use existing capacity more efficiently, they recommend 10 primary strategies: improve signal control and timing; restrict curb parking on busy thoroughfares; implement paired one-way streets; promote ride-sharing, telecommuting, and flexible work schedules; develop a high-occupancy toll-lane network; vary curb-parking rates with demand, enforce the current parking cash-out law; promote deep-discount transit passes; expand bus rapid transit and bus-only lanes; and implement a regionally connected bicycle network. In addition, three recommendations may help, depending on the outcome of current events: evaluate arterial incident management, consider cordon congestion tolls, and levy local fuel taxes to raise transit revenue. Given that some of the recommendations may prove controversial, the authors also outline complementary strategies for building political consensus.

Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare

Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare
Author: Marian S Harris
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0231521030

The number of children of color entering the child welfare system in the United States is disproportionately high. Not only are children of color removed from parental custody and placed in care more often than their white counterparts, but they also remain in care longer, receive fewer services, and have less contact with the caseworkers assigned to them. This book identifies the practice and policy changes required to successfully address the unequal treatment of children of color in the child welfare system and their implications for social work education, caseworker training, and institutional change. It critiques many of the existing social welfare acts and policies in terms of their treatment of children of color, and it provides best practices for each decision point in the child welfare process and for cultural competency measures and training. The text offers extensive measurement instruments that agencies can use to assess and correct institutional racism. To improve social work education, the book includes several model syllabi for the curriculum, and to deepen the discipline's engagement with the issue of institutional racism, the text concludes with a discussion of future directions for research and policy.