This section includes resources that discuss strategies on addressing bias in order to reduce and/or eliminate disproportionality and disparity within the child welfare system. It is critical for child welfare to focus on equity throughout the child welfare continuum, from prevention of abuse and neglect to adoption.
Addressing Bias in Delinquency and Child Welfare Systems: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile and Family Courts Is Critical to Creating a Fair and Equitable System of Justice for All Youth (PDF - 429 KB)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, State Justice Institute, & National Juvenile Defender Center (2018)
Discusses the influence that bias has in juvenile and family court and its impact on racial disproportionality in their respective systems. The resource, which is a bench card for judges, also includes tools for self-reflection and strategies to reduce and remove implicit bias from the courtroom.
Biases (PDF - 238 KB)
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (2018)
Summarizes an article that focuses on biases and the role of institutionalized racism in creating barriers to organizational change. It also provides concrete recommendations that organizations can take to combat institutionalized racism and biases.
Cultural Awareness and Bias: Reducing Disproportionality and Disparity (PDF - 198 KB)
National CASA Association (2019)
Explains how child welfare workers can reduce bias by being aware of their own cultural biases, calling out bias when they see it, and learning to assess individuals by their strengths and challenges regardless of race or ethnicity.
Family Assessment Tool: How to Overcome Bias (PDF - 12,860 KB)
Capacity Building Center for Tribes (2018)
Provides tips for frontline workers to keep in mind during family assessments in order to increase self-awareness and intentionality while overcoming bias.
Family Assessment: Understanding Bias [Video-based training]
Capacity Building Center for Tribes, Tribal Information Exchange
Provides training on how to understand and expose biases that impact decision-making during family assessments in child welfare from a Tribal child welfare perspective.
New Training Helps Child Protection Workers Examine and Address Implicit Racial Bias
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2019)
Presents a training, inSIGHT, which discusses implicit racial bias and teaches child welfare professionals how to mitigate their own biases.
The Power of Practice
Tierney (2021)
Explores how child welfare professionals can work to address bias through practicing racial justice, examining bias, and the use of technology.
Race and Poverty Bias in the Child Welfare System: Strategies for Child Welfare Practitioners
Ellis (2019)
Child Law Practice Today
American Bar Association, Center on Children and the Law
Describes implicit bias and explicit bias, why they matter, and how child welfare leaders should address them.
To Transform Child Welfare, Take Race Out of the Equation [Video]
Pryce (2018)
TED Talks
Overviews disproportionality in the child welfare system, the role that implicit bias has in causing disproportionality, and a promising strategy to mitigate its effects through blind-removal meetings.