Conference Focuses On Minorities In Foster Care

PROVIDENCE - Child welfare advocates and experts gathered at Brown University for a forum focusing on racial disparities in the country's foster care and juvenile justice systems.

The focus of the conference was why minority children are more likely to removed from their homes by child welfare officials than white children.

Studies show that while blacks make up 13 percent of the nation’s population, black children account for about a third of children in foster care.

Black parents are 10 times more likely to be reported for allegedly neglecting their children, and that black children are four times more likely than white children to be placed into foster care.

Poverty and racism are often blamed for the disparity.

Experts agreed racial disparity is a problem that needs attention.

“It’s undeniable that in the United States race matters in child-welfare policy and practice,” said Dorothy Roberts, a law professor at Northwestern University’s School of Law in Chicago.

Richard Wexler, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Coalition for Child Protection Reform said states invest too much money and energy on removing children from their homes, and not enough on programs designed to help parents keep custody of their children.