Children's Experiences in Foster Care When Their Removal Reason Relates to a Parent's Disability

Background

While there has been growing national attention to the experiences of parents with disabilities and their families in child welfare, there is little research on how the child welfare system serves families when a parent has a disability. While the collection of national data on parental disability is quite uneven, the Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System (AFCARS), the federal reporting system that collects case-level data on all children in foster care through state and tribal IV-E agencies, does include a removal reason regarding a caretaker’s “physical or emotional illness or disabling condition”. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and outcomes of children in foster care who have this removal reason.

Methods

This study uses administrative data from the 2012 year of AFCARS, in which 19.5% of foster children had at least one removal reason of parental disability, and 5.6% had parental disability as their sole removal reason. Logistic regression was used to explore how a removal reason of parental disability correlated with type of placement, case plan of reunification, and reunification upon discharge. T-tests were used to compare children with and without parental disability as a removal reason in regards to length of stay in current placement, and total days in foster care. As foster children could have multiple removal reasons, analyses were conducted separately comparing children with parental disability as one of several removal reasons, and those with parental disability as their sole removal reason.

Results

This study finds that children who had parental disability as a sole removal reason were 1.34 times more likely to be in non-relative foster care than were those without parental disability as a sole removal reason. Children who had parental disability as one of several removal reasons spent an average of 100 days longer in their current foster care setting and 116 more total days in foster care than those without parental disability as a removal reason. Children with parental disability as a sole removal reason spent an average of 205 days more in their current setting and 240 more total days in foster care than those without disability as a sole removal reason. Those with parental disability as one of several removal reasons were 33% less likely to have a case goal of reunification and 22% less likely to be reunified upon case closure, and those with parental disability as a sole removal reason were 32% less likely to have a case plan of reunification and 50% likely to have reunification as an outcome upon case closure.

Implications

Findings indicate that children who have parental disability as a removal reason have different experiences in child welfare and different child welfare outcomes than those without parental disability as a removal reason. While the AFCARS removal reason of parental disability is not a proxy for parental disability and is unevenly used by child welfare agencies, the study points to a need for closer attention to parental disability within the child welfare system to ensure appropriate services.