CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Race/Ethnic Disparities in Child Welfare New Research Synthesis from Fluke et al. (in press) New Findings from UCB Barbara Needell, MSW, PhD Emily Putnam-Hornstein, MSW, PhD University of California at Berkeley We gratefully acknowledge the support of the California Department of Social Services, the Stuart Foundation, and Casey Family Programs

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Why disparities? disproportionate and disparate need of children and families of color racial bias and discrimination in the child welfare system and other ecologies child welfare system processes and resources geographic context All may be true! Fluke, J., Jones Harden, B., Jenkins, M. & Ruehrdanz, A. (in press). Research Synthesis on Child Welfare Disproportionality and Disparities

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley The problem with summary statistics: The average human has one breast and one testicle. * * ~Des McHale

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Data Unique dataset constructed by linking children reported for maltreatment during the first five years of life to their birth record –state CWS/CMS records linked to vital birth records –probabilistic methods (84% of child welfare records matched) 530,843 children born alive in CA in 2002 –14% reported for maltreatment (N=74,182) –6% substantiated as a victims (N=27,805) –0.8% entered foster care (N=4,388) Racial disparities? –examined aggregate Black vs. White disparity across decision points –estimated child level risk at each decision point, after adjusting for other risk factors

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Black vs. White Disparities: Reports, Substantiations, Entries to Foster Care

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley What is hidden beneath the summary statistics? Significant racial variations in the presence of risk factors that are associated with disparities… In multivariate models, we adjusted for twelve sociodemographic and biomedical risk factors for contact with child protective services: child’s sex (n.s.), low birth weight, birth abnormality, prenatal care, maternal birth place, maternal race/ethnicity, birth payment method, maternal age, maternal education, abortion history, paternity information, birth order Significant interactions between a number of covariates and Medi-Cal coverage led us to stratify models

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Summary statistics that indicate Black/White disparity mask large covariate effects Questions: Why are people poor?* Are the service needs of Black and White children and families being addressed? Are “thresholds” the same for Black and White children and families? What are the appropriate rates for Black and White children?

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Barbara Needell