Racial Disproportionality and Disparity
Outcomes and Lessons Learned, Executive Summary
This report outlines the outcomes and lessons learned from the Casey Family Programs Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Reducing Disproportionality and Disparity for Children and Families of Color in the Child Welfare System.
The Other Side of ICWA: A Cultural Journey to Fairness and Equity
Sponsored by the California Social Work Education Center and the California Department of Social Services, the goals for this training are: 1. To provide an experiential learning experience on the relevance of historical, cumulative, and collective trauma to working with Native Americans and communities; 2. To develop an understanding of Native American cultural and communication styles in relation to the non-tribal child welfare systems; 3. To provide engagement techniques and strategies for identifying a Native American child, and for developing culturally appropriate resources and tools; and 4. To value the application of principles of Fairness and Equity to skills and strategies in working with other culturally diverse families within child welfare systems.
The Disproportionality Project: Raising Our Children Together, A Report on Recommendations for Reducing the Disproportionality of African American Children in San Francisco’s Child Welfare System, 2004
Produced by the Inter-City Family Resource Center, Inc/Bayview Hunter’s Point Family Resource Center San Francisco, this report seeks to understand why African American children are over represented in San Francisco’s child welfare system and provides nine major recommendations, which include specific actions and strategies for achieving these recommendations.
Disparity Calculation Tool
Child Welfare: Ethnic/Racial Disproportionality and Disparity
Group Disproportionality and Disparity
Contra Costa County 2006: Disproportionality - Examples and Changes (5.1M)
Santa Clara County: Disproportionality in Child Welfare: 2008 Plan
This paper provides an update on the progress of the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency action plan to address racial disparity and disproportionality within child welfare. Included is an overview of implementation progress for the 2007 plan as well as goals for 2008.
Indiana Disproportionality Committee 2007 Annual Report
Prepared by the Indiana Disproportionality Committee, this report presents an update on recent activities and accomplishment by the Committee to address racial disparity and disproportionality of children of color served by public systems. Included is an overview of the Committee, an outline of its vision, mission, goal and objectives, a presentation of key data, and a review of accomplishments for 2007 as well as recommendations for change. The report is shared with both key stakeholders and the broader community to highlight efforts to improve outcomes for children of color in the child welfare, juvenile justice, education and mental health systems.
Public Policies and Practices In Child Welfare Systems that Affect Life Options for Children of Color (2.4MB)
Written by Ernestine F. Jones, 2006, Background Paper, The Joint Center Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Washington D.C and Dellums Commission, this report examines the impact of the child welfare system on the ability of minority children to pursue positive life options and presents promising practices to bring about improvements.
Race Matters
Written by Dennette Derezotes, this article in Permanency Planning Today, describes strategies to prevent, intervene and eliminate adverse disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system.
Equity: Moving Toward Better Outcomes for All of Michigan's Children (1.4MB)
Created by the Michigan Advisory Committee on the Overrepresentation of Children of Color in Child Welfare (2006), this report discusses the overrepresentation of children of color in the child welfare system in Michigan and presents recommendations for addressing this issue.
Disproportionality Paper
Synthesis of Research on Disproportionality in Child Welfare: An Update Prepared the Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity, the Westat researcher, Robert B. Hill, PHD, explores the reasons and the data behind the disproportionality of children of color within the child welfare system. The report explores patterns of disproportionality, the role race plays at various decision points within the system, the degree of racially disparate treatment in child welfare and the ways in which other social systems contribute to this disproportionality.
Promising Practices to Address Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare Services
Prepared for the Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity, this report documents the efforts of ten communities, six of which are Family to Family sites, as they attempt to address and change the contributing factors that have led to racial disproportionality in their child welfare systems.
Minnesota Department of Human Services, Children of Color Outreach Program
Written by Maxie Rockymore (2006). A Practice Guide for Working with African American Families in the Child Protection System, is meant to help social workers address the systemic overrepresentation of African American children and families involved in child protective services.
Racial Equity and Subsidized Guardianship
Written by Mary Bissell and Jennifer Miller (2007), and sponsored by Casey-Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) Alliance for Racial Equity, Cornerstone Consulting Group’s National Collaboration to Promote Permanency through Subsidized Guardianship, and the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), this issue brief is designed to provide a general overview of the issues that were raised by national experts at the December 2005 conference concerned about the over-representation of and the disparities experienced by children of color in the child welfare system. The purpose of the symposium was to explore how subsidized guardianship policies and practices could help to reduce racial/ethnic disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system while supporting a broader range of permanency options.

Seeing Beyond Our Own Time:
A Celebration of African American Life and History; A Look at Foster Care, By Ruth G. McRoy Davis, 2006
Casey Alliance-CSSP
The Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare (the Alliance) is a collaboartion of Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Services, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy

African American Children in Foster Care; Additional HHS Assistance Needed to Help States Reduce the Proportion in Care, Written by the Government Accountability Office, Report to the Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representative, July 2007
This report shows that African American children are twice as likely to enter foster care than White children, even though children of all races are equally as likely to suffer from abuse and neglect, and that Black children remain in foster care longer than other children. The report specifically recommended that Congress amend federal law to provide federal reimbursement for legal guardianship, similar to that currently provided for adoption.

Racial Disproportionality, Race Disparity, and Other Race-Related Findings in Published Works Derived from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being
Written by Keesha Dunbar, Richard Barth, the University of North Carolina 2008, the University of Maryland, CSSP, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Casey Family Services, this paper draws on studies of data gathered during the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW). It examines child welfare in the context of race and ethnicity.
Unsuccessful In-Home Child Welfare Service Plans Following a Maltreatment Investigation: Racial and Ethnic Disparities
Created by Patricia Kohl, the Casey-CSSP Alliance, the Washington University, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation 2007, this study, based on data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), examines the racial inequity and disproportionality in children remaining in the home following an investigation for maltreatment and neglect.
An Analysis of Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality and Disparity at the National, State, and County Levels
Written by Bob Hill, the Race Matters Consortium Westat, Casey Family Programs, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Services, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2007, this report from Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare makes many contributions to the study of disproportionality in the child welfare system by incorporating the experiences of a variety of populations, such as American Indians, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. Unlike other studies, this analysis describes racial inequity and disproportionality as it exists across national, state, and county levels.
Toward a Community-Based Approach to Racial Disproportionality
Written by Dorothy Roberts, Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, this article discusses the use of Family Group Decision Making as part of a community-based approach to eradicate racial disproportionality in the child welfare system.
Engaging Communities in Taking a Stand for Children and Families: Leadership Development and Strategic Planning in the Texas Child Welfare System, May 2002 - April 2007
Created by the Casey Family Programs Texas State Strategy and Texas Child Protective Services, this report documents the work of Texas Child Protective Services in addressing the overrepresentation of African American children in child welfare practice, policy, and procedures. System improvements were needed from the inception to closure of the child welfare process.
African American Kinship Caregivers: Principles for Developing Supportive Programs (2002)
Written by Jennifer Szolnoki and Katharine Cahn of the University of Washington Northwest Institute for Children and Families, this report outlines seven key principles, defined through the results of a literature review, for better supporting African America kinship caregivers.