Transcript Achieving Fairness and Equity: Solution

Achieving Fairness and Equity:
How Training Can Be Part of the
Solution
Symposium on Fairness and Equity Issues in Child Welfare Training
and Education
Ruth G. McRoy, Ph.D.
[email protected]
April 12, 2007
Role of Training and Education in
Promoting Fair and Equitable Practice
within the Field of Child Welfare
– Review of Disproportionality Data and Issues
• Differential Impact of Services on Specific Populations
• Causes, Challenges
• Promising practices
– Staff Training and Educational Challenges and
Issues
– Promoting Fairness and Equity Through Training
Recognize Causes
• As Courtney asked in 1996, “Do child welfare
researchers, policymakers, and practitioners believe
that it is ethically acceptable to be involved in
improving the efficacy of a system that takes these
children without simultaneously being involved in
remedying the problems that bring the children to
the system?”
Child Welfare: Public and Private System
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Intersects with and is influenced by:
Juvenile Justice
Welfare
Criminal Justice
Education
Health Care
Child Care
Mental Health
Media
Federal and State policy
Child Welfare Professionals: In Search of
Answers
Disproportionality in Child Welfare
The history
The context
Definitions
Evidence
Theories
Responses
Promising practices
1959: Maas and Engler
• reported that more AA children in care and
less likely to be adopted
1963
– Culturally insensitive workers removing children
from “undesirable family situation: and placing
in foster care-– 81% of children in out of home care in 1963
were there because parents were unmarried or
came from broken homes-• Most were African American and Indian
Jeter (1963) reported that Black children
were
• Remaining in foster care for longer periods
of time than white children
• Adoption not being offered on equitable
basis
• Ongoing discrimination in service provision
• Black children being served by public
agencies and
– Private agencies serving white children
Billingsley & Giovannoni (1972)
• The system of child welfare is failing Black
children. It is our thesis that the failure is a
manifest result of racism; that racism has
pervaded the development of the system of
services; and that racism persists in its present
operation (p.3)
• Is this still true in 2007?
1980’s to 2005
– Trends in Numbers of Children in Care
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1982: 262,000 children in care (52% were Anglo)
1993: 429,000(38% Anglo)
2000: 588,000(35% Anglo)
2002: 532,000 (39% Anglo)
2003: 523,000 (39% Anglo)
2005: 513,000(41% Anglo)
Overrepresentation
• If a particular racial/ethnic group of
children is represented in foster care at a
higher percentage than they are represented
in the general population
Disproportionality
• A situation in which a particular racial/ethnic
group of children is represented in foster care at a
higher percentage than other racial/ethnic groups
– (I.e. If 5% of all White children are in care, then
5% of African American, Hispanic etc.)
U.S. Child Population under 18
(% in care)
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61% White (41% in care)
17% Hispanic/Latino (18% in care)
15% African American (32% in care)
3% Asian American (1% in care)
1% American Indian/AN (2% in care)
According to AFCARS estimates for Sept.
2005
• 513,000 children in the US foster care system
• White, 41%
• Black, Non-Hispanic 32%
• Hispanic, 18%
• AI/AN Non Hispanic 2%
• Asian/PI NI Non-Hispanic 1%
• Unknown 2%
• Two or more races 3%
2006 California Child Population
(% in Care)
44% Hispanic (42% in care)
35% White (26% in care)
10% Asian American (2% in care)
7% African American (28% in care)
1% American Indian/AN (1% in care)
78,278 California children in foster Care
on July 1, 2006
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6% are less than one year of age
25%-- 1-5
21%-- 6 and 10
30%-- 11 and 15
17%-- 16-19
1% -- over 19
Good News:
• In 2000 there were 108,000 in foster care.
• Number in California foster care has decreased
by 8% from 2003 to 2005
County Data
• Alameda County
– 15% of child population is Black
• 67% of children in care are Black
• Contra Costa County
– 11% of Child population is Black
• 46% of children in care are Black
• Solano County
– 17% of child population is Black
• 40% of children in care are Black
Disparities not unique to California
46 states have disproportionate representation of
African American children in their child welfare
systems.
Studies recently completed in MN, Michigan,
Texas
Children’s Rights Law Suit in Tennessee
Center for Study of Social Policy
• Calculated State by State
Statistical Profile of Racial
Overrepresentation in Foster
Care
• States with Extreme
Disproportion(16)
– Rhode Island
– New Jersey
– New Mexico
– Iowa
– Indiana
– Pennsylvania
– Arizona
– Montana
• Illinois
• California
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Oregon
Wyoming
Minnesota
Idaho
New Hampshire
Wisconsin
Demographics of the 78,278 California
children in Foster Care
• Average number of months in care– 39
months in 2003 (30 months nationally)
• 46% have experienced three or more foster
care placements (42% nationally)
• Majority of children come into care because
of parental neglect
California’s foster children
• 47,429 waiting to be reunified
• 5% or 4,852 waiting to be adopted
• Avg. time foster care children have been
– waiting to be adopted-- 46 months (42 months
nationally)
AFRICAN AMERICAN
CHILDREN IN CARE IN
CALIFORNIA
• African American children represent 6.7 % of the
under 17 population.
– But represent 28% of those in social services care
• 21, 915 children in care are African American
“Black kids more often taken from
families by social workers”
• Recent news headline
– Santa Clara County—Black children represented only 2.4%
of the population younger than 17 in the county, but
accounted for 12.8 percent of children in the child welfare
system in 2005, more than 7 times the rate of White children.
Needell, Brookhart, & Lee (2003)
• Needell, Brookhart, & Lee (2003) found that Black
children in California are more likely than White or
Hispanic children to be removed from their caretaker
and placed in care, even when age, reason for
maltreatment, neighborhood poverty are taken into
account.
Annually about 11% or 4,535
California children exit care at 18 or
older
• Another 7% (2,877) leave for other reasons
– Including running away, transfer, or death
Nationally, about 20,000 children age
out of foster care with no place to go.
• Former foster children are 22 times more likely
to be homeless than peers and one-third end up
poor.
Child Welfare Decision Point Analysis
• Identify points where change in
representation occurs
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Report/no report
Investigation/no investigation
Substantiation/no substantiation
Case closed/no services/in home services/out of
home care (kin,foster)
• Reunification/adoption/remain in care or age out
Percent of African American vs. White Children:
in population, victims, entering foster care, in
foster care, and waiting for adoption
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70
60
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White
Af Amer
40
30
20
10
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% in pop
victims
enter fc
in fc
waiting
Child Maltreatment 2002: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm02/index.htm, p. 23
National Adoption and Foster Care Statistics: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/dis/afcars/publications/afcars.htm
Estimates based on AFCARS data 3/04
African American children in
California
• Are more likely than White or Latino children to
be reported for abuse, and more likely to be
placed in foster care, particularly if they are
infants. They are less likely to be reunified and
adopted than children of other races (Needell, et
al, 2004).
Questions
• Why are children of color reported to the system at such a high
rate?
• What is the relationship between poverty and disproportionality?
• Do children receiving a greater level of publicly funded services
get referred to child welfare more often, due to visibility?
• What is the relationship between neighborhoods and services?
• What is impact of children who live in resource poor
neighborhoods?
– (Crystal Ward Allen-Public Children Services Association of Ohio 2005)
Possible Explanations
• Disproportionate need
• Societal discriminatory practices over which the
child welfare systems have little or no control.
• Discriminatory practices within the child welfare
system (Needell, et al. 2003).
Courtney (1996) reported inequities
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child maltreatment reporting
service provision
kinship care
family preservation
Courtney (1996) reported inequities
in
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exit rates
length of care
placement stability
adoption
Majority of racial differences reported were
between African Americans and Anglos
rather than any other group
Links to Child Welfare
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Poverty
Domestic Violence
Growth of single parent families
Impact of welfare reform
Child support
Neglect is often product of poverty/high visibility
Child maltreatment
Judicial system
Homelessness
Substance Abuse
Oppression/Racism
Considerations in Disproportionality
Poverty
– Lindsey (1991) and Pelton (1989)
– Parental income is the best predictor of child removal and
placement
• Majority of children in care from single parent, lowincome households.
(Pelton, 1989, pp. 52-53)
• The reason for placement is that the family,
frequently due to poverty” does not have the
resources to offset the impact of situational or
personal problems which themselves are often
caused by poverty, and the agencies have failed
to provide the needed supports, such as baby
sitting, homemaking, day care, financial
assistance, and housing assistance.
In California
• 1 in 5 children lives in a household that earns
less than the federal poverty level ($16,600 per
year for a family of three).
– 1 in 3 African American, Latino and Native
American children, ages 5 and younger, lives in a
very low-income family.
– One in 12 White children lives in a very low income
family.
The State of Black California: Racial
Inequality
• Blacks’ economic standing is a little over half that of
Whites
• Blacks’ housing quality, health index, education,
criminal justice index
– is about two-thirds that of Whites.
• Only index in which Blacks scored higher is civic
participation.
According to The State of Black
California
• Black poverty rate is 22.4% compared to the White
poverty rate at 8%.
• 33.9% of Black children live in two parent families as
compared to 72% of White children.
• Blacks higher in felony arrests, misdemeanor arrests,
homicide rates for males and females; higher in school
dropout rates
Neglect
• Often product of poverty
• Parents under scrutiny/more likely to be
reported
Theories of Disparities
• Spatial concentration of child welfare
supervision in communities of color.
• Lindsey (1991)—parents’ income level was best
predictor of child’s removal (national survey
data analysis of those who received supportive
services and those placed in care)
Possible Explanations
• Disproportionate need
• Societal discriminatory practices over which the
child welfare systems have little or no control.
• Discriminatory practices within the child welfare
system (Needell, et al. 2003).
Barth (2001)
suggests multiplicative model
– “There are small to medium increases in the
disproportionality by population experienced by AA
children as they move through the child welfare system,
which results in substantial differences in their
representation in child welfare compared to their
representation in general population”
– Argues greater risk for child abuse and neglect in AA
families
– Reentry rates highest for AA children
Garland, et al (1998)
• Reported that race/ethnicity is a factor in
determining placement of African American
children and not simply a confound related
to socioeconomic factors
Jenkins and Diamond (1985)
• –Higher probability for minority children to be
placed in foster care when living in a geographic
area where they are relatively less represented
(more visible).
Visibility Hypothesis
• Garland, et.al (1998) tested this hypothesis using
population of minors referred to receiving facility in
San Diego.
– More visible a child was in community, more likely child
would be placed in foster care.
• Pattern only present for African American children—not Hispanic or
Asian children.
• Pattern not related to socioeconomic characteristics, as these were
equal among AA and Hispanic
Unintentional Bias
• Robert Hill (2004) suggested that many
caseworkers are looking out for the best
interests of children, but many may be culturally
insensitive to minority groups.
Differential attributions and labeling
bias
• Physicians may be more likely to attribute
injury to abuse in lower income homes.
Child Maltreatment Reporting
AA families more likely to be reported for
suspected child abuse and neglect, YET
• NIS-1,NIS2,NIS3--estimates about incidence of child
abuse and neglect reported NO differences in incidence
of child abuse and neglect by racial group
Parental Substance Abuse
• Parental substance abuse reason for 42% of children who were
victims of abuse and neglect
– In 77% of these cases, alcohol was the problem substance, and cocaine in
23%
• Alcohol and drug related cases more likely to result in foster care
placements than other cases (DHHS, 1999)
– Black women more likely to be reported for prenatal substance abuse and
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more likely to have children removed
Relationship between race and child
welfare outcomes
• African Americans disproportionately poor
• Disparate family preservation service delivery
• Inequities in child maltreatment reporting, service
provision, kinship care, family preservation, exit
rates, length of care, placement stability and
adoption (Courtney 1996, Barth, 1994)
• Enter care at younger ages (Kemp & Bodonyi,
2000)
• Less likely to have plans for visitation (Olsen, 1982)
Child and Family Reviews
• Noted a strong association between caseworker
visits and improved outcomes for children.
– Greater likelihood of involving children and parents
in case planning
– Greater likelihood of reunification or
– Placement in other living arrangements in a more
timely manner
– Managing the risk of harm to children
Children of Color in the Child
Welfare system
• I think any individual, regardless of their minority
status, that ends up in a poverty situation is more visible,
because they’re having to access free clinics, and social
services, and welfare, and those types of things. Child
abuse, certainly crosses the broad range of socio-economic
classes, however, if you have more wealth to your name,
it’s easier to cover up. People are less likely to report you.
(Comments from CPS Worker)
• Families living in poverty are most likely to be living in
resource poor communities, geographically isolated from
other communities that might offer support and services.
Without access to services, families are further
compromised. The more compromised these families are,
the more likely it is that they eventually will come into
contact with the system.
Disparities not Unique to Child
Welfare
• Also occur in
–Special Education
–Health
–Mental Health
–Criminal Justice
Decision Makers Needing Training
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Social Workers
Judges
Teachers
Medical Personnel
Addressing Disproportionality
• Child Welfare Information Gateway
– State and Local Efforts to Mitigate Disproportionality
– http://basis1.ccalib.com/BASIS/chdocs/docs/canweb/SF
• Casey Family Programs Breakthrough Series
• Race Matters Consortium (racemattersconsortium.org
• State Studies on Disproportionality
– Minnesota, Michigan, Texas
• Court Cases
Rep. Rangel Started Inquiry
• into the High Number of Black Children in
Foster Care
• Releases Data Showing Significant Over-
Representation
and Requests Investigation from the GAO
Assembly Bill 672
– February 21, 2007
– Introduced by Assembly Member Beall
• Will require the California Child Welfare Council to
prepare a workplan and appoint a committee to develop a
statewide vision and strategy for reducing the
inappropriate disproportionate representation of children
of color in California’s child welfare and foster care
systems.
• “The ethnically competent social worker of today and of the
future must be sensitive to ethnic considerations and competent in
dealing with ethnic concerns.”
Leigh(1985) “The Ethnically Competent Social
Worker.”
NASW Standards for Cultural
Competence in Social Work Practice
• Cultural Competence refers to not only
knowledge about a culture, but the ability to
provide meaningful assistance to and on behalf
of someone from that culture.
• Cross Cultural Skills
– Use the clients’ natural support system in resolving
problems
Heart Beat—Newsletter of the
Public Children Services Association
of Ohio (Vol. 18, 8, 2005)
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The strategy is not about defending our system, or
assigning blame, but recognizing that child welfare must
be one of the leaders to develop strategies to change
outcomes for large numbers of children.
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“Training caseworkers on diversity is not the
solution! If it were, our numbers would have improved
by now.” (Crystal Ward Allen, Exec. Dir.)
Professional Social Work Education
• “Social work continues to lag in producing a
labor force prepared to take on the complexities
of culture, race, and ethnicity to maximize
positive outcomes for children, families, and
communities.
• Agency administrators regularly proclaim that
graduating social workers are unprepared to
work with diverse client populations.”
• (McPhatter & Ganaway, 2003).
– Components of cultural competency
• Knowledge (history, one’s culture and that of client’s )
• Self-awareness and understanding dynamics of difference
in the helping process; understand power and privilege;
• Intervention strategies and skills
– Selecting, modifying and assessing the appropriateness of
available practice strategies to work with diverse client groups;
adapt practice skills to the client’s cultural context
• Understand the differential impact of social policy on
special populations
Recommendations—More than just
numbers
• Need to study link between workforce issues and improved
outcomes for children and families
• Studies have shown that to improve staff retention, must not
only reduce direct service caseloads, but also improve
supervision, agency supports, and hire staff with professional
commitment to the job and relevant education
GAO (2003)
• Workforce issues:
• Low salaries, high caseloads, administrative
burdens, lack of supervisory support and
insufficient training opportunities.
Moving from Cultural Competency
to Fairness and Equity
Decision Points
• Every decision point is subject to bias. The
challenge is to understand how such biases
manifest in the child welfare system.
Prevention and Family Reunification
• Work to prevent unnecessary out-of-home
placement or to promote family reunification
• Agencies should acknowledge inequitable
service delivery to minority children and analyze
why
Training on Prevention Programs-Point
of Engagement
• Alternative Response Systems
– Identify and engage at-risk families before they come to the
attention of the formal child welfare system.
• Differential Response—community based network of
formal and informal support services for children and
families with multiple inconclusive child abuse and
neglect referrals to divert families from CPS
– Seamless service delivery; community outreach; team decision
making; one stop shopping; safety net
Family Assessment Training
• Are conditions related to safety the result of
poverty factors?
• Is substance use affecting parenting?
• Have maternal and paternal relatives been
conducted?
• What are the alternative forms of permanency?
• What are the family’s mental health, income,
housing and substance abuse needs?
Need Training in Enhancing
Caseworker Visits
• Role of supervisors in promoting the quality
and timeliness of caseworker visits
• Link between caseworker visits and outcomes
for children and families
• Caseworker visiting strategies
– What worked well?
– Challenges during visit?
– Meeting goals of visit
• Relating to children and families
Role of Caseworkers in Child
Placement Decision Making
• Child Outcomes
– Safety—Remove the child from risk of harm
• ALSO CONSIDER
– Permanency—Stability and outcome—adoption,
guardianship, emancipation, age out, reunified
– Well Being—mental and emotional health, physical
health, and educational attainment
Training on Special Challenges for
Youth
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Experienced abuse and neglect
Physical and mental health problems
Developmental delays
Educational difficulties
Mild to severe psychological and behavioral
difficulties
• Multiple moves/losses
• Sibling and other family connections
• Concerns/Fears about adoption
Training on Impact of Loss on
Children
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Interventions for children
Multiple losses
Acknowledging child’s pain
Providing information
Preparing children for placement
Reducing trauma
Helping child adjust
Children’s internal working models of adults
California Evidence-Based
Clearinghouse
• Assessment of Evidence Based Practices
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Well Supported—Effective Practice
Supported—Efficacious practice
Promising Practice
Acceptable/Emerging Practice—Evidence unknown
Evidence fails to demonstrate effect
Concerning practice
– How closely does the intervention fit with the outcomes you
wish to affect?
• Eliminate disproportionality and disparate treatment
– Consider populations on which interventions have been tried
and on which they need to be tried.
Training Needs: Staff need knowledge of
culture
– Impact of racism and poverty on behavior,
attitudes, values
– Help seeking behaviors
– Role of language, speech patterns,
communication styles
– Impact of social service policies on clients of
color
– Power relationships
– Privilege
– Knowledge of Specific Groups
Strengths Approach
• How will I look for strengths throughout the life of
this case and how will I document them in the case file?
• What are the maternal and paternal influences in the
life of the parent and child?
• Which relatives have the capacity to support the
parent(s) and children as an out of home placement
prevention strategy during the current case problem?
• How can I make a referral to culturally competent
family therapists, domestic violence and substance
abuse programs?
Topics for Worker Training
• Assessing culturally responsiveness of legislation and
policy
• Cultural dynamics of the community in which they
work
– Economic and political capacity
– Potential of educational institutions
– Safe and affordable housing/health and wellness
• Attitudes and perceptions of child welfare agency
• Finding relatives/exploring placement options
Insider and Outsider Status
• Insiders have a shared cultural heritage and a
measurable degree of mutual identification
– May or may not reside in the same neighborhood
– Qualify for community membership regardless of
neighborhood of locality
• Outsiders
– Seek to work with clients or communities that are culturally
and ethnically different form themselves.
• Can become “passing insiders” once they obtained grounded
knowledge base
• Insiders invisibly screen (consciously or unconsciously)
• (Woodroffe & Spencer, 2003)
Child and Family Centered Training
• Knowledge needs:
– How to access the latest literature, research, evidence based
practices which focus on populations of color
– The issues that bring most children into the system: poverty,
substance abuse, neglect, abuse, parental lack of opportunity
and access to services
– The impact of multiples losses and multiple attachments and
uncertainties on children
– Crisis theory, grief & loss theory, child development,
cognitive understanding, adolescent development, identity
development
– How to appropriately prepare children before, during and
after a move
Training for Culturally Competent
Organizational Change
• Is the organization addressing cultural
competence due to external pressure or do you
have a comprehensive plan for training culturally
competent staff ?
• What are the barriers to change?
• Assess the current training on cultural
competency
– What is the evidence of training effectiveness related
to child and family outcomes?
Training Needs
• Understanding state and federal legislation
impacting children and families
– Training to analyze policies and their differential
impact on children and families
– Training on how policies and funding determine
service priorities
Training on Assessing Cultural
Dynamics of a community
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Community’s economic and political capacity
Spiritual institutions
Availability of safe and affordable housing
Effectiveness of schools where children in care attend
Employment and skill development opportunities in the
community
– Recreational and other life-enhancing activities in the
community
– Health and wellness issues in the community
– Community’s view of CPS
Training on Community
Connections
• Partnering with the community from which the
children come
• Empowering communities
• Involving families in the system in training
workers
• Impact of family and community disruption
– “Can’t walk in someone else’s shoes until we take off
our own.”
Training on Accountability
• African proverb: He who upsets a thing should
know how to rearrange it.
• Have I done more harm than good?
– Knowledge of impact of family disruptions
• Have I restored order to the families disrupted by the
system I represent?
• Have I held the system I represent accountable for
restoring order to that which has been disturbed?
– (Miller & Jones-Gaston, 2003)
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Training on Recruiting and
Retaining Foster and Adoptive
Families
Using the data—who is adopting AA children?
Utilizing training from successful programs
Involving the community/other adoptive families
Overcoming barriers to recruitment and retention
Following families through the process
Using MEPA guidelines
Special training for placement of older children
Remember
• Training is a process—not a two hour event
• Involve a cultural consultant or person from the
community to help staff understand the issues
• Collaborate with communities
• Build capacity over time
• Build critical thinking skills
• Trainers must become self aware of impact of
oppression on their lives
• The eyes of the future are looking back at us,
and they are praying for us to see beyond our
own time.
• Terry Tempest Williams
• THE CHILDREN
ARE
WAITING.