Locating the Sources of Disproportionality in Foster Care: Entry and Exit Disparities

Background and Purpose: The over-representation of children of color in the child welfare system is by now well documented but less is known about how disproportionality comes about. The answer requires an understanding of both system processes that determine the mix of children in the system at any given time – admissions to and exits from foster care. Our prior research addressed admissions disparities but little work has been done to source differences by race in exits from foster care. Nor has much research measured disparity at both entry and exit simultaneously in order to assess the relative contribution of each. Additionally, aggregate information may obscure important variation in the experiences of subgroups of children. This analysis considers race and other major characteristics of children and their placement experiences in an examination of how and when African American and white children enter and leave foster care.

Method: First admissions from a large eastern U.S. city from 2000 to 2009 are followed through March 2010 (n=10,362). Entry disparities are calculated as the ratio of the African American to the white placement rate per 1,000 children. Median foster care durations are calculated by year of admission and race. Cox proportional hazard models estimate the relative rates of exits from foster care by race/ethnicity, taking into account age at admission, placement care type, and exit destination.

Results: African American children are over six times as likely to enter foster care than are white children. Disparity for teens is even higher – 7.7. Once in care, African American children stay about as long as white children (median duration is 6 months). However, the picture changes for different subgroups. Babies exit to permanency slower than children of other ages. African American babies stay in care even longer relative to other ages than do white babies. Among children placed with kin, African Americans exited more slowly relative to whites (HR=.93, p<.05).

Certain pathways out of foster care appear to generate disparities as well. African American children exit to reunification slower than white children (HR=.92, p<.01), and to adoption, slower still (HR=.79, p<.001).

Conclusions and Implications: In this jurisdiction, disparity is most pronounced at entry to foster care although significant disparities arise at the point of exit as well. Nuances revealed by different subtypes of children and exit destinations demonstrate the value of targeting disparity-reduction strategies. Admissions among African American teens for example, stand out, as do African American babies at exit. Furthermore, that African American children stay in care longer when placed with kin brings to light the interacting nature of policy goals to reduce entry and exit disparities. Policies intended to reduce disparity may inadvertently lead to a reduction in kin placements for African American children, while continued efforts to encourage kin placements may increase disparity.