Study finds child welfare disparity

American Indian and black children are more likely to enter the Washington child welfare system and stay in the system longer than white children, according to a report ordered by the Legislature and released Wednesday.

The report, “Racial Disproportionality in Washington State,” confirms what national studies have found, that racially biased decisions made at every step in the child welfare process contribute to the overrepresentation of children of color in the system.

The data shows definitively “that kids of color have disproportionate burdens on them once they are involved in the state system,” said Toni Lodge, executive director of the NATIVE Project in Spokane and a member of the state Racial Disproportionality Advisory Committee.

The committee, created by the Legislature in 2007 to study reasons for the number of minority children in the system, commissioned the study, which was prepared by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy.

Lodge said American Indian children are referred to child welfare more often, their referrals are more likely to be accepted, and they are more likely to be taken from their homes and less likely to be reunited with their families than any other children in Washington.

“Who has it the worst are off-reservation Native children,” Lodge said. “They need a lot more support than any of us are able to provide at this time.”

Among the report’s findings:

“American Indian children are 1.6 times more likely than white children to be removed from their homes and twice as likely to remain in state care for more than two years.

“Black children are 1.2 times more likely to be removed from home and 1.5 times more likely to remain in care for more than two years.

“While Latino children were more likely to be referred to child welfare, they were no more likely to be removed from home. However, Latino children who entered the system in Eastern Washington were more likely to be in state care for more than two years.

“Children from low-income families were more likely to be in child welfare than children from affluent families.

“The level of disproportionality among Native American children really stands out,” Department of Social and Health Services Secretary Robin Arnold-Williams said in response to the report. “We are committed to working with tribal and community leaders throughout the state to understand why it exists at the level it does and finding ways to reduce it.”

Arnold-Williams is required by state law to work with the advisory committee on a remediation plan and report to the Legislature by December.