Child Welfare Practice to Address Racial Disproportionality and Disparity

This bulletin briefly overviews racial disproportionality and disparity in the child welfare system and the factors that contribute to the problem. It then describes practices that child welfare caseworkers, administrators, program managers, and policymakers can implement to address these issues in general and at specific decision-making points along the child welfare continuum (such as prevention, reporting, screening and assessment, service delivery for children and affected families, and permanency for children in out-of-home care in a child welfare case). Further, the bulletin also stresses the importance for State and local child welfare agencies to understand Tribal sovereignty within the relationship between the two agencies. The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) allows for the formation of Tribal-State agreements which often serve to improve ICWA compliance and outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native children, and to increase Tribal access to Federal child welfare funding.