It’s All in the Definition: Color-Blind Interpretations of School Diversity

Color-blind theory posits that ignoring race is a purposeful tool for protecting white privilege. Implicit in this theory is the idea that color blindness arises in times of racial threat because color-blind attitudes provide individuals with a tool for justifying racialized practices. Schools provide an ideal context for testing these implicit assumptions of color-blind theory. Public schools have shifted from using race conscious practices, such as forced busing, to racially ambiguous ones, such as touting diversity to address racial integration. Diversity is racially ambiguous because it can be interpreted as the inclusion of racial minorities but can also have a broader, color-blind meaning. In this study, I use a survey experiment to test whether experiencing racial threat leads white participants to have a color-blind interpretation of school diversity and whether racialized practices (in this case, picking a whiter school) mediates that relationship. I find evidence corroborating color-blind theory. Experiencing racial threat increases the probability that participants have a color-blind understanding of school diversity. Further, I find evidence that the mechanism explaining this relationship is participants picking whiter schools, highlighting that color blindness can be used as a tool to justify racialized practices.     

Emerging strategies for reducing racial disproportionality and disparate outcomes in child welfare: the results of a national breakthrough series collaborative

Racial disproportionality in child welfare has been discussed as a seemingly intractable challenge with complex contributing factors. Some argue that these dynamics are far too difficult to be significantly impacted by public child welfare systems alone. The Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) methodology, incorporating an analysis of structural racism and potential system bias, was proffered as a tool for engaging public child welfare agencies in a rapid, action-oriented process for identifying innovative strategies and practices to reduce racial disproportionality and disparate outcomes. This article describes the Disproportionality BSC process, as well as the work of participating jurisdictions with respect to transforming organizational culture and testing/implementing child welfare practice improvements. A theory of change is presented and critical lessons learned are shared in the form of collaborative reflections.     

New methodology: Measuring racial or ethnic disparities in child welfare

Understanding the disparate treatment of African American children in the child welfare system requires consideration of the dynamics at a community level and the state level. Looking across a state allows one to target policies and practices to areas within the state that are most in need. This paper argues for a new method of assessing disparate treatment in child welfare that takes into consideration the racial or ethnic makeup of the community in conjunction with the racial or ethnic makeup across the state. This paper uses decision based enumeration which helps to pinpoint decisions where disparities are the greatest, and helps target decisions that most impact disparate treatment. This paper utilizes a methodology that is both accessible to state and county child welfare administrators and utilizes data that is readily available to child welfare policy makers and administrators. Using data from Illinois to illustrate this methodology, this paper highlights the regions within the state where limited resources may be targeted to address disproportionate representation and disparate treatment in Illinois' child welfare system.     

The context of decision-making in cases of child neglect

This paper explores professional decision-making in cases of child neglect within the context of child protection practice in Britain. The literature on the nature of neglect is reviewed. Difficulties associated with decision-making are then examined within a framework that addresses the social, political and organizational context of child protection practice. It is argued that the current system, which focuses on incidents of abuse rather than the context of children's lives, provides inadequate protection for many children experiencing chronic neglect. Conclusions are drawn with regard to the development of practice that supports vulnerable parents while still remaining the child's welfare as paramount. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working with Me,Working at Me: Fathers' Narratives of Child Welfare

This article examines the experiences of fathers involved in the child welfare system. Fathers who were interviewed as part of a multiyear Canadian project were atypical in that they were actively engaged with the child welfare system. Their stories show how, although not always physically present, child welfare's ghostly form is still very much a part of the daily lives of fathers and their families. These fathers had to be resourceful and resilient as they endeavored to look “promising” to the child welfare system. The critical analysis offers insights into a more father-inclusive approach to child welfare that has implications for policy and practice development.     

Hurdling the Artificial Fence Between Child Welfare and the Community: Engaging Community Partners to Address Disproportionality

As with many national and state social service systems, child welfare agencies have traditionally functioned in isolation. A multitude of federal and state laws and policies direct the functions and practices of child welfare systems, setting up an artificial fence around the agency that has created a culture lacking in interprofessional collaborations. However, recent reform efforts have emphasized the importance of engaging the community in discussions and decisions regarding child welfare practice. Child welfare agencies are now expected to work with community leaders, key stakeholders, affiliated service providers, and families to address issues impacting children and families. A major obstacle is determining where to begin, how to proceed, and what is needed to develop those partnerships. This article reports the efforts of one state agency in hurdling that artificial fence to address the overrepresentation of minority children in the system. Through focus group interviews with community members, child welfare staff, and legal professionals, barriers to community engagement are identified, and recommendations are provided for facilitating meaningful relationships and partnerships between child welfare agencies and the communities they serve.     

Individual and systemic/structural bias in child welfare decision making: Implications for children and families of color

The factors contributing to observed racial disproportionality and disparity in the child welfare system have been the subject of national discourse for decades. This qualitative study used focus groups to engage child welfare and collaborating system decision makers, community partners, and families in a subjective interpretive analysis of racial disproportionality and disparity that had been demonstrated by a previous quantitative analysis of Oregon's child welfare system. Thematic analysis yielded eleven themes from the participant focus groups, four of which clustered around individual and structural/systemic bias and are examined in this paper: visibility bias; cultural bias and insensitivity; personal influences on determination of minimally adequate care; and foster and adoptive parent recruitment and licensing practices. Participants offered recommendations to improve outcomes for children and families of color in light of these observations: increase awareness of bias, create checks and balances in decision-making, contract with and hire culturally and racially diverse professionals, and increase funding for training.     

An Examination of the Persistence of the Residual Child Welfare System in the United States: Addressing Charges of Radical Theoretical Myopia with Implications for Social Work Practice

The United States follows what has been termed a “residual” approach to its public child welfare system. This article describes the residual model and contrasts it with the policies of other industrialized nations. It also explores the causes and persistence of the residual model in the United States through the lens of structural-functionalist theory. By doing so, this article attempts to respond to critics of structural social work who maintain that it is overly reliant on conflict theory and has nothing to offer in terms of distinct practice methods. Suggestions for a structurally informed social work practice are made.     

Every Child Matters? A critical review of child welfare reforms in the context of minority ethnic children and families

This paper critically reviews some key government papers that together largely provide the foundation for the relevant child welfare reforms in England and Wales. The context of this review was to evaluate whether these papers and documents made sufficient reference to improving policies and practices for minority ethnic children and families involved in child welfare matters, given the research evidence from the early 1990s suggesting that such families may experience particular disadvantages or discriminations within the UK child welfare system. The research evidence cited draws upon studies that have considered the experiences of different minority ethnic groups from the point of referrals through to long term services, including those children who have been looked after in local authority care and those families that have been subject to care proceedings. This paper concludes that more is needed under the Every Child Matters agenda to both acknowledge and address the specific needs of minority ethnic children and their families, as identified in the range of studies published post Children Act 1989. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who am I? Who do you think I am? Stability of racial/ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care and concordance with agency categorization

While it has been well documented that racial and ethnic disparities exist for children of color in child welfare, the accuracy of the race and ethnicity information collected by agencies has not been examined, nor has the concordance of this information with youth self-report. This article addresses a major gap in the literature by examining 1) the racial and ethnic self-identification of youth in foster care, and the rate of agreement with child welfare and school categorizations; 2) the level of concordance between different agencies (school and child welfare); and 3) the stability of racial and ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care over time. Results reveal that almost 1 in 5 youth change their racial identification over a one-year period, high rates of discordance exist between the youth self-report of Native American, Hispanic and multiracial youth and how agencies categorize them, and a greater tendency for the child welfare system to classify a youth as White, as compared to school and youth themselves. Information from the study could be used to guide agencies towards a more youth-centered and flexible approach in regard to identifying, reporting and affirming youth's evolving racial and ethnic identity.     

Cracks in the Seams: Durability of Child Care in JOBS Welfare-to-Work Programs

The success of recent welfare reforms will depend, in part, on the ability of local welfare programs to meet the child care needs of low-income parents. A key challenge is the integration of targeted child care subsidies into a seamless system for parents who are making transitions between welfare, training, and employment. This article uses data from a one-year panel study to describe program activities and child care use and transitions for participants in a welfare-to-work program. The results suggest that welfare clients were receiving significant child care assistance but services remained fragmented and poorly integrated. Adult clients engaged in multiple, often short-term job preparation and employment activities, and transitions between activities frequently resulted in disruptions in child care arrangements and loss of child care subsidies. Implications for welfare and child care policy are discussed.     

Parental substance misuse and child care social work: research in a city social work department in England

This research set out to establish evidence about the scale and impact of and response to parental substance misuse in child care social work teams in a city social services department in England. The article draws on some aspects of the data collected in the research, which includes: a snapshot survey of all child care social work caseloads in the city; group interviews with practitioners and parents in recovery; individual interviews with parents using a pilot project that focused on parental substance misuse. The research provides evidence of parental substance misuse as a key factor that needs greater consideration within child care social work assessments and as an issue to target in developing preventative responses to child welfare concerns. Child care social workers are shown to need specialist support in undertaking this task to best effect. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Race,Hyper‐Incarceration,and US Poverty Policy in Historic Perspective

In this article, I bring scholarship on welfare reform into discussion with work on crime control and racial and ethnic relations. I locate the genesis of hyper‐incarceration and the moral suasion imposed on the recipients of contemporary social welfare services through the poverty policies of the Victorian era and later the postbellum south, implicating the checkered history of racial domination in the United States in the development of social welfare and criminal justice policy. I conclude by discussing the ways in which the United States has been reconfigured to facilitate these trends and of new terrain in the study of marginality in the neoliberal age. Doing so demonstrates the long‐standing collusion between welfare state and criminal justice actors, identifies the racialized target of punishment and poverty management, highlights the significance of race in the development of social policy, and exhibits the importance of social welfare policy in contemporary race and ethnic relations.     

Do families in poverty need child and family social work?

This article attempts to contribute to the historically relevant debate about the role of social work in poverty situations, focusing on the emblematic and radical question whether the poor actually need social work. In the context of the currently dominant policy framework in European welfare states, that is underpinned by the emerging paradigm of social investment, we argue that it is extremely relevant to readdress this question. Within this development, the eradication of child poverty has been considered a key target of poverty reduction strategies and child and family social work has consequently been assigned a pivotal role in the fight against the intergenerational transmission of poverty. We demonstrate that the rhetoric of social investment has found a practical implementation in social work constructing the problem of poverty in terms of education and activation of both the child and the individual parent. Based on an extensive review of literature, we discuss underlying assumptions, consequences and pitfalls of the paradigm of social investment for social work and tease out whether, and on which conditions, poor families need child and family social work.     

The color of welfare sanctioning: exploring the individual and contextual roles of race on TANF case closures and benefit reductions

This article investigates the individual and contextual roles of race on welfare sanctions: benefit cuts for failing to comply with work or other behavioral requirements under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Using six years of federal administrative data, I advance previous welfare research by providing a nationally representative analysis of participant-, county-, and state-level predictors of welfare sanctioning. Using theories of racial classification, racialized social systems, and racial threat as guiding frameworks, I find that black and Latina women are at a greater risk of being sanctioned than white women. Further, although odds of a sanction are slightly reduced for black women living in counties with greater percentages of blacks, the opposite holds for Latinas, who are at an increased risk of being sanctioned in counties with greater percentages of Latinos.     

Nordic social workers' assessments of child welfare problems and interventions: a common model in child welfare?

In international comparison, the Nordic countries are characterised by similar policy goals and institutional contexts in child welfare. But is it also possible to talk about a common Nordic model in child welfare at the level of social work practices? And if so, to what extent do the results match the ideal model of ‘preventive and family service oriented Nordic child welfare’? This article investigates similarities and variations in Nordic social workers' assessments concerning child welfare problems and possible interventions by using vignettes and focus group interviews in case studies in four capital areas: Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm. The results seem to confirm the assumption of a preventive and family service oriented Nordic child welfare system regarding social work practices with smaller children, but not when adolescents are concerned.     

Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: Examining the Unique Mental Health Needs of Girls

This study investigated the prevalence of mental health problems among girls who are involved in child welfare or juvenile justice systems. The sample consisted of 1,193 girls ranging in age from 4 to 18, the majority (82.3%, n = 982) of which were older than age 12. Differences based on race/ethnicity and developmental age groups were examined. Consistent with other research, this study found that the mental health needs of girls involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems are several times higher than in the general population. Intervention approaches must be developed that take into consideration differences in gender, age, and racial and ethnic group.     

Falling Through The Cracks: Gaps In Child Support Among Welfare Recipients

This article examines gaps in child support among welfare recipients in Wisconsin. Documented is the extent to which breakdowns at various stages—including paternity establishment, support orders, and payments—contribute to the low rate of child support receipt. Children were tracked over a 2‐year period to assess their progress through the child support system over time. Few welfare recipients are able to successfully negotiate the child support system, and mothers frequently achieve different degrees of success with different children. The characteristics of children who drop out prior to obtaining a support order suggest that, with an order in place, they would be as likely to receive support as are those children who already have orders.     

Challenging implicit bias: preparing students to practice with African American families

ABSTRACT

The disparity of African American families in the foster care system is a concern in the field of child welfare services and the social work profession. African American families experience unique challenges related to discriminatory practices and implicit biases in the child welfare system and by mandated reporters. To address these inequalities, state and local agencies have implemented prevention and intervention services to support minority families. Additionally, child welfare agencies have invested in professional development training for their workers to alleviate possible intolerant practices. This article describes implicit biases and considers how they could contribute to the disparity of African American families involved in the child welfare system. Furthermore, the article presents approaches to help social work students to identify and challenge their implicit biases to support culturally sensitive practices while working with African American families. It concludes with implications for social work education.