Exploring Child Welfare Service Referrals By Race/Ethnicity Using the Needs Portal Intervention

Background & Purpose: Among families who enter the child welfare system, a disproportionate number of children of color are removed due to abuse and/or neglect. Despite this, little attention has been paid to differences in service referral type and the number of service referrals among African American and Hispanic families. Service referrals are an important aspect of service provision that has been unexplored. When services are not referred to families in need, they may miss out on opportunities to address risk factors, improve family functioning, and achieve family reunification. Few studies have examined service referral rates by race/ethnicity or differences in type of services referred, such as basic needs (i.e. housing) compared to psychological service needs (i.e. parenting skills). Understanding racial/ ethnic differences in the type or number of services that families are referred to may highlight areas of need or ways in which the child welfare system can better serve families.

Methods:This study utilized a cross-sectional, convenience sample from the Department of Children and Family Services Needs Portal, a web-based intervention that allows caseworkers to request services for families involved with the child welfare system. The sample includes data for all requests with complete cases submitted between July 2013 and June 2015 (N=367) from two child welfare offices in Southern California. Families were categorized as: 1) African American (n = 116, 31.61%), 2) Hispanic (n = 193, 51.59%), and (3) White/Other (White, Asian, and Native American, n = 58, 15.80%). Hispanic families were used as the reference group.  The dependent variables were: 1) the number of services requested per family 2) the categories of services to which families were referred. We used negative binomial regression to analyze whether there were differences in rates of service referral by race/ethnicity and used a series of logistic regressions to estimate whether there were differences in the type of service referral by race/ethnicity.

Findings:The results show that there were differences between African American families and Hispanic families in the types of service referrals received.  Hispanic families were more likely to have been referred to psychosocial services than African American families, who were more often referred to basic needs services.  There was no association however, between a family’s race/ethnicity and the number of service referral requests made by caseworkers (adjusting for case type and language.)

Conclusion and Implications: This study adds to the literature by highlighting child welfare service referral patterns by caseworkers for Hispanic and African American families. By examining service referral rates and variation we gain a comprehensive picture of differential service referral patterns among racial/ethnic groups. As the requirement for a family’s reunification includes compliance with mandated services, referrals to appropriate services is important in determining the child’s placement and reunification outcomes. These findings indicate a greater understanding of why service referral variation exists and whether differential need might explain these differences. Findings underscore the need to reduce service referral disparities between ethnic groups as the lack of appropriate and accessible service referrals may decrease the likelihood of successful family reunification.