Emerging Strategies for Reducing Racial Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes in Child Welfare: The Results of a National Breakthrough Series Collaborative.

Racial disproportionality in child welfare has been discussed as a seemingly intractable challenge with complex contributing factors. Some argue that these dynamics are far too difficult to be significantly impacted by public child welfare systems alone. The Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) methodology, incorporating an analysis of structural racism and potential system bias, was proffered as a tool for engaging public child welfare agencies in a rapid, action-oriented process for identifying innovative strategies and practices to reduce racial disproportionality and disparate outcomes. This article describes the Disproportionality BSC process, as well as the work of participating jurisdictions with respect to transforming organizational culture and testing / implementing child welfare practice improvements. A theory of change is presented and critical lessons learned are shared in the form of collaborative reflections. ". . . there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleep-walkers." - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, p. 5 For several decades, child welfare professionals and researchers have drawn attention to the disparate treatment and outcomes experienced by children and families of color involved with this nation's child welfare system. As early as 1972, Billingsley and Giovannoni described both the systematic exclusion of African American children from services provided by the network of publicly funded child welfare institutions, as well as the disparately poor outcomes experienced by African American children and families, including the disproportionately high numbers of African American children waiting for adoption. In this analysis they argued, The system of child welfare in this country is failing [b]lack children. It is our thesis that the failure is a manifest result of racism; that racism has pervaded the development of the system of services; and that racism persists in its present operation, (p. 3) These trends continue in child welfare systems today (Caliber Associates, 2003; Hill, 2006; Roberts, 2002a, 2002b; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2007). In 2003 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Children's Bureau funded a study to investigate the plight of children of color in the child welfare system. In this study, researchers and child welfare professionals were interviewed about the overrepresentation of children of color in foster care and the kinds of strategies child welfare organizations around the country were using to meet the needs of children and families of color (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). General perceptions of the major factors responsible for disproportionality and disparate outcomes included poverty, need for services and lack of resources, increased visibility of communities of color to human services systems, overreporting of families of color with allegations of child maltreatment, lack of cultural competence among child welfare professionals, and the presence of institutional bias in the definitions and substantiation of maltreatment for different groups of families. Public child welfare systems around the country have also taken notice and have begun to investigate the extent and nature of disproportionality and racial disparities in their systems (Colorado Department of Human Services, 2002; Disproportionality Project, 2004; King County Coalition on Racial Disproportionality, 2004; Michigan Department of Human Services, 2006; Minnesota Department of Human Services, 2002, 2005; Texas Health and Human Services Commission, 2006). While awareness is certainly increasing, the disproportionate representation of children of color in the child welfare system continues to be discussed by many child welfare professionals and lawmakers as an intractable problem with roots and contributing factors far too complex and complicated for child welfare systems to address. This could not be further from the truth. …