This page includes State and local examples of addressing disproportionality and disparity and moving toward equity within child welfare systems.
Committees and coalitions for equity
Indiana Disproportionality Committee: Finding Solutions Across Systems
Indiana Disproportionality Committee
Provides information on the Indiana Disproportionality Committee, that which works to eliminate disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare, education, juvenile justice, health, and mental health systems in Indiana.
Race, Community and Child Welfare Initiative and Disproportionate Minority Contact, Fayette County, Kentucky
Features information about the Race Community and Child Welfare Initiative and the Disproportionate Minority Contact Committee, which exist to eliminate racial disparities in multiple children and family-serving systems in Fayetteville, Kentucky.
Racial Equity and Cultural Competence Committee
New York City Administration for Children’s Services (2020)
Describes the history and mission statement of New York City’s Racial Equity and Cultural Competence Committee, which focuses on the child welfare and juvenile justice system. The resource also includes links to New York City data reports and their exhibit on the history of child welfare from the 1800s to today.
Statewide Meeting Addresses Disparities in Outcomes for Children and Families of Color in Child Welfare (PDF - 195 KB)
Commonwealth of Kentucky, Cabinet for Health and Family Services (2017)
Highlights the Race, Community, and Child Welfare Initiative in Hardin County, Kentucky, and how it eradicated the overrepresentation of children who are African American entering foster care.
State and local examples
Addressing Disparity and Disproportionality in Georgia
AdoptUSKids (2021)
Offers insight from the perspective of an AdoptUSKids Minority Professional Leadership Development program participant on the concepts of disparities and disproportionality and why this is an issue in Georgia.
Addressing the Foster Care Crisis in Kansas: Recommendations From the Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope Coalition (PDF - 2,345 KB)
Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope Coalition (2018)
Examines problems in the Kansas foster care system, including that children are entering foster care at racially disproportionate rates, and provides recommendations to address them. Their recommendations include expanding safety nets available to families, providing more targeted prevention and early intervention efforts, and improving conditions and placement stability for youth in foster care.
Building a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System: A Blueprint (PDF - 13,834 KB)
Statewide Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Care & Children’s Commission (2019)
Details Texas’s roadmap for becoming trauma informed within their child welfare system. Throughout the blueprint, they note that becoming trauma informed should be integrated with addressing disproportionality and disparities.
Disproportionality in Child Protective Services System
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) (2019)
Provides a high-level overview of disproportionality and disparity within the child welfare system in Texas and links out to more information on what DFPS is doing to make a difference.
Also see: Latinos and Race Equity [Webinar]
Expanded Bill Aims to Address Racial Disparities in State's Child Protection System Through Sweeping Change
Cooney (2019)
Minnesota Legislature, Minnesota House of Representatives
Explains a proposed bill, HF342: Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act, and its intended impact of minimizing overrepresentation of youth of color in the State’s child welfare system.
Incorporating Racial Equity in Data Sharing in Broward County, Florida
Annie E. Casey Foundation (2019)
Presents how Broward County, Florida, is working to build racial equity into their data-sharing systems to help eliminate disparities in child welfare, behavioral health, and juvenile justice systems as well as the school district and the community. Their approach includes education on structural racism and implicit racial bias as well as bringing together young people and agency staff to develop data processes, tools, and policy/system reform recommendations.
It Takes A Village: Caring for Our Community’s Black Kids
Amara (2018)
Highlights one Washington State foster care agency’s response to addressing disproportionality and disparity within the foster care system through recruiting more foster families of color, an African American Outreach Advisory Council, and community presentations. A video describing the importance of understanding culture and links to related news articles are also on this page.
Kinship Care and Race Equity in Child Welfare [Webinar]
Allen & Bouldin (2018)
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
Describes the racial disproportionality of children in kinship care in Texas and the role that implicit bias has in causing it. The webinar shares what frontline workers can do to combat implicit bias and the safeguards that are in place to reduce disproportionality.
Public Act 18-111: Report on the Department of Children and Families’ Racial Justice Data, Activities and Strategies (PDF - 1,106 KB)
Connecticut State Department of Children and Families (2019)
Reviews the current state of Connecticut’s work on racial justice. It includes strategies they have implemented to reduce disparity, current and historical data, and their plan to eliminate disproportionality and disparity.
Race Equity: Nassau and Onodaga County Report (PDF - 273 KB)
Pryce, Lee, Sellati, Park, & McCarthy (2016)
State University of New York, University at Albany, Social Work Education Consortium
Highlights positive outcomes in disproportionality rates in two New York counties and the factors that workers believe led to the improvement. The promising practices that were identified included grants focused on racial equity, preventive services, community collaboration, case practice development, and blind-removal meetings.
Strategic and Racial Equity Plan
Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families
Describes a plan that provides focus for the agency to better serve children, youth, families, and our communities as one entity. The framework helps to build services to strengthen the agency's ability to serve families and disrupt racial inequity and disproportionality in systems.
Webinar Recording: DC Families First Family Success Center Initiative: Advancing Equity and Transforming Child Welfare [Webinar]
FamilyFirstAct.org (2020)
Provides an overview of the DC Families First Family Success Center Initiative. The initiative funds 10 Family Success Centers in targeted neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., that work to meet the needs of families served by the child welfare system. The centers are uniquely designed to fit each community’s needs and focus on increasing protective factors and mitigating trauma for targeted populations. A free login is required to view the recording.