Yes, the Child Welfare System Is Oppressive: More Than an Intellectual Endeavor

Of late, the extensive scholarship on the existence of oppression in the child welfare system from entry to exit has been challenged by a group of skeptical social work academics. Quantitative and qualitative evidence dating back decades has established the role of intersectional racial, gender, and gender orientation bias present in practices, procedures, and policies that have perpetuated systemic disparities among targeted marginalized groups. No doubt, these marginalizations have been most salient among Black children and families. Data shows that Black children consistently experience systemic disparities in substantiated investigations of neglect related to poverty, have a higher incidence of family separation, have increased incidents of placement moves and placement in restrictive congregate settings, comparatively have longer stays in out-of-home placement, are less likely to be reunified, and most often age out of the system. These experiences are more compounded when factoring in the intersectional identities that include gender, and gender orientation.

Authors who have offered their erudite alternative discussion challenging the reality of oppression in the child welfare system suggest a need to disregard arguments that center lived experiences of parents, adolescents, and children that demonstrate the ongoing existence of systemic disparities designed to oppress specific groups to the benefit of a capitalist structure. The current debate over oppression begs the question of whom gets to determine if child welfare is an oppressive system. Is it the scholar or the people directly impacted by child welfare?

This roundtable session will begin with a dialogue that introduces the position arguing against oppression in the child welfare system. The authors of the roundtable will present a critical point-by-point counterargument that highlights the flaws, contradictions, and false positives used to dismiss long-standing rigorous scholarship that has established the existence of systemic oppression in child welfare. We begin using one author's powerful lived experience narrative. Her perspective is rooted in extensive lived experience in foster care, beginning at eight years old, becoming a foster/adoptive parent in adulthood, and as a social work advocate focused on child welfare transformation. We use additional lived experience narratives, supported by qualitative and quantitative scholarship, to discuss the parent perspective, the youth perspective, and the community perspective to underscore and reiterate the role of oppressive harm done to racially and gendered marginalized families involved in the child welfare system. The contribution of these narratives affirms how lived experiences are not to be dismissed as anecdotal but regarded as critical knowledge. We conclude the session by discussing the dangers of teaching a flawed perspective to social work students committed to social justice for marginalized families and children involved in the child welfare system. We will further seek to engage in a critical facilitated question-and-answer dialogue with session participants.fied by 73.60.137.154 on 4-15-2025-->