Fixing our foster care system
March is national social work month, reminding us of the integral role that social workers play within the child welfare system.
Social workers have a code of ethics to abide by which advises cultural competency and understanding of cultural differences when working with families.
However, the generalization and stereotypes of a specific race or ethnic group may result in a disservice to families within our communities.
Racial disproportionality within the child welfare system has been largely attributed to the discrepancies of comparing the percentage of children in the general population to children in the child welfare system.
An obvious example of disproportionality exists in the foster care system, where the ratio of black children to Caucasian children is five to one.
While there has been a national decrease in black disproportionality rates since 2004, nearly every state has a higher percentage of black children in foster care.
Only 20 percent of the child population in the U.S. is black; however, 40 percent of these children enter the foster care system.
This disproportionality is due to a variety of reasons.
When a family does not have access to services such as affordable child care, parenting support or concrete social support, they are often left to “fend” for themselves.
Due to a lack of resources in areas where poverty exists, the likelihood of children entering into the system becomes greater.
Regardless of race and ethnicity, preventive interventions can strengthen family ties and lower the number of children who enter the foster care system.
Collaboration with community agencies can be utilized to develop community bonds, implement preventive services like educational opportunities before abuse or neglect occurs and offer additional training opportunities for staff on cultural competence and disproportionality.
Increasing public awareness of the challenges is essential to creating change with the disproportionality faced in the social welfare system.
Social workers can continue to provide preventive services by integrating communities and building healthier neighborhoods for disadvantaged families.
As a whole, society can work to bridge the gap by providing increased support to children who are at risk of entering the foster care system.
Christine Le, Julie Le, Ashley Pipes, Lisa Vu, and Joyce Witcher are social work graduate students and contributing writers for the Daily 49er.
