Report profiles Native American foster care

Idaho and Washington are among the 10 states with the greatest overrepresentation of Native American children in foster care, according to a report released last week by two child advocacy groups.

The report, “Time for Reform: A Matter of Justice for American Indian and Alaskan Native Children,” calls on the federal government to provide tribes with direct access to the largest sources of public child welfare funding.

The Tribal Foster Care and Adoption Act of 2007, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and in the House by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., would grant tribes access to these funds and hold tribes accountable for meeting the needs of children in their care.

While Native Americans represent 1 percent of Idaho’s child population, they make up 6.6 percent of children placed in the state’s foster care system, according to the report released by the National Indian Child Welfare Association and Kids Are Waiting.

In Washington, Native Americans make up 2 percent of the child population and 8.4 percent of children in foster care.

As reported by The Spokesman-Review in April, many experts believe a culturally biased child welfare system is largely responsible for the disproportionate number of minority children in foster care.

An analysis by the Casey Foundation and the Center for the Study of Social Policy, two organizations that advocate for children and families, found that children of color comprise 42 percent of the nation’s youth, but nearly 60 percent of children in foster care nationally.

The analysis identified race as the primary factor in decisions made at each step in the child welfare system.

“Agencies working with Indian children are unfamiliar with tribal culture and child-rearing and often are removing children when they don’t need to be,” said David Simmons, director of government affairs and advocacy for the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

Though data are limited, they indicate that American Indian and Alaska Native children experience abuse and neglect at a rate of 16.5 per 1,000 children. This compares to rates of 19.5 per 1,000 black children and 10.8 per 1,000 white children.

Native American children were much more likely to be identified as victims of neglect and much less likely to be identified as victims of abuse than other ethnic groups.

According to Simmons, “the best way to alleviate disparity is to bring tribes into the delivery of foster care services in a more prominent way.”

The Indian Child Welfare Act, passed by Congress in 1978, grants jurisdiction to tribes and requires that Indian children be kept in Indian homes when possible. But a dearth of such homes and lack of awareness and training by social service agencies have resulted in inconsistent compliance nationally.

The Washington Legislature addressed the high number of minorities in the child welfare system in its last session, passing a bill signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire to study the issue and find solutions.

The resulting Disproportionality Advisory Committee met for the first time Nov. 1 and 2 and is due to make its recommendations by December 2008, said Karen Lee, spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health Services.

A member of that committee, Toni Lodge, director of the NATIVE Project in Spokane, said: “As grateful as we are for the Indian Child Welfare Act and state statutes that support it, it is an unfunded mandate.”

“Tribes do a heroic effort to find resources for the rehabilitative services necessary to keep our families together,” Lodge said.

Part of the problem, according to the Time for Reform report, is that tribes are ineligible for the largest sources of federal funding for child welfare – Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance and Title XX Social Services Block Grant – created in 1980 and ‘81.

Last year, states received about $7 billion in Title IV-E funds, about half the money spent by the federal government on child welfare, and $1.7 billion in Title XX funds.

Though tribes cannot receive any of this money directly, a few states have entered into agreements with 70 of the nation’s 560 federally recognized tribes to allow them access to these funds.

Washington “passes through” a portion of Title IV-E funds to four of the 29 tribes within the state, and it’s negotiating with several others, said Nancy DuFraine, Indian child welfare manager for the DSHS Children’s Administration.

The four tribes receiving these federal funds are the Quinault, Makah, Lummi and Port Gamble S’Klallam.

DuFraine said receiving IV-E funds is “an arduous process,” and tribes must have an infrastructure in place before the state will pass the funds through to them.

“The biggest barrier is data collection and tracking of that data,” she said. “Many tribes are just coming on board with the necessary technology.”

Idaho has no such arrangement with the four tribes within the state, according to Tom Shanahan, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

“Our people would welcome the idea,” Shanahan said. “We think it would be really good for the tribes to receive funding directly.”

The problem is that few of the 1,800 Native American children in Idaho foster care are from state tribes.

“Idaho tribes do not appear interested in taking on the administrative cost of a IV-E program for a small number of kids,” Shanahan said.

Simmons said alternate sources of funds are virtually nonexistent in Idaho and that in Washington, Native children are being placed in homes without proper foster care subsidies.

DuFraine said DSHS has been working with McDermott’s office staff in support of his and Baucus’ measure.