Publication year: 2011
Source: Children and Youth Services Review, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 27 March 2011
Nancy, Rolock
Understanding the disparate treatment of African American children in the child welfare system requires consideration of the dynamics at a community level and the state level. Looking across a state allows one to target policies and practices to areas within the state that are most in need. This paper argues for a new method of assessing disparate treatment in child welfare that takes into consideration the racial or ethnic makeup of the community in conjunction with the racial or ethnic makeup across the state. This paper uses decision based enumeration which helps to pinpoint decisions where disparities are the greatest,…
Research Highlights: ►A weighted risk ratio standardizes racial or ethnic composition to produce community level disparity rates that are comparable across a state. In communities where African American children make up a larger percentage of the children this provides a more nuanced assessment of disparity than a traditional risk ratio. ►Using a weighted risk ratio to address the disparate treatment of children of color in the child welfare system allows child welfare professionals to assess where limited resources can be targeted to areas within their state where needs are the greatest and resources most needed. ►Using decision based enumeration children entering foster care are compared to the children at risk of entering foster care due to be the preceding decision-point in the sequence of service delivery, not all children living in the community. With each calculation the denominator changes to reflect the population at risk for a specific outcome.