NCJ Number
239547
Date Published
May 2012
Length
87 pages
Annotation
This technical assistance bulletin presents disproportionality rates for children of color in foster care in all 50 States and for jurisdictions served by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' Model Courts in 2010.
Abstract
Disproportionality is defined as "the level at which groups of children are present in the child welfare system at higher or lower percentages or rates than in the general population." Hill developed the "disproportionality index" as an indicator of the degree to which a given jurisdiction has a disproportionate rate of children of color (African-American, Native-American, and Hispanic/Latino) in foster care. Under the disproportionality index a ratio in which scores range from 0.00 to 0.09 are indicative of underrepresentation; scores of 1.0 indicate no disproportionality; and scores of 1.1 and higher indicate overrepresentation. The data used for these calculations are from the U.S. census and the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). In the disproportionality rates for 2010, African-American/Black children were the most overrepresented racial group in foster care in the United States. Nearly every State had a disproportionate number of African-American children in foster care. Across the Nation, Native-American children were overrepresented in foster care at a rate 2.1 times their rate in the general population. Although not all States showed disproportionality for Native-American children in foster care, 21 States had a disproportionality index greater than 4.1. The rates of Hispanic/Latino overrepresentation across the Nation were less pronounced. Only a few States had a significant disproportionality rate for such children in foster care; however there may be more overrepresentation of Hispanic/Latino children at the county or local level. Extensive figures and tables are presented for each State and the jurisdictions served by Model Courts.