Examination of racial imbalance for children in foster care: implications for training

Concerned with the high number of African American children in out-of-home care in an East Texas county, the regional administrator of a state public child welfare agency asked its IV-E partnered university to examine the kinds of training the agency might need to address the problem. A semi-annual time-series model from January 1997 to June 1999 was constructed to track the proportion of African American children at three critical case junctures: investigation, case opening, and removal of the child to out-of-home care. In addition, the study analyzed characteristics of the county's population, including racial changes and poverty. The study found that African American children were referred to public child welfare at twice the rate of Anglo children, with the ratio increasing during case progression. The study also found a higher proportion of African American children in the community and a higher poverty rate, particularly for African American children, than what was previously understood. The study not only provided details of racial distribution over time and over case disposition, but also highlighted the importance of understanding problems within a community and organizational context. The study further suggests that training include generalist and advanced generalist social work education, considering practice with systems of all sizes, to assess, prevent, treat and evaluate interventions designed for the safety, permanency and well-being of children.