Session: Exploring Efforts to Balance Child Protection and Family Integrity in Child Welfare Policy and Practice with Black Families in Canada (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

Child welfare policy and practice are influenced by persistent pendulum swings between two seemingly contradictory positions: preserving family integrity vs. prioritizing the protection of the child. Long-standing issues of racial disparities in child welfare involvement and outcomes have given rise to another tension in policy and practice. More specifically, debates about the causes and remedies for such disparities make meaningful and impactful policy and practice change challenging. For Black families in Canada, these dynamics are further complicated by the structural anti-Black racism that increases vulnerability for child welfare intervention and shapes their experience in the system. In Ontario, the threshold for reporting and investigating families for child protection concerns is markedly low and often focused on circumstances that present risk of harm rather than actual events of maltreatment. It has been argued that the Ontario child welfare system is calibrated to investigate the very conditions that anti-Black racism creates, particularly when they are focused on these potentially high-risk conditions and circumstances (e.g., caregiver-child conflict, caregiver vulnerabilities, threats of physical discipline). There are inherent challenges in using a forensic system designed to protect children from abuse and neglect to instead promote child and family well-being and mitigate risk. The papers in this symposium will articulate these challenges and efforts to balance the pendulum swing between family preservation and child protection, while acknowledging and integrating the impact of anti-Black racism on families before, during, and after child welfare involvement.

The first paper examines racial disparities for Black families using data from a nationally representative study on maltreatment-related investigations in Canada. Findings reveal that Black children were investigated and placed in out-of-home care at higher rates than their White counterparts, even after matching on child, family, and household characteristics associated with more persistent child welfare involvement.

The second paper describes child welfare professionals understanding of the impact of Ontarios screening tool for determining eligibility for a child welfare investigation on practice and decision-making for Black families reported to the system. The findings highlight that despite efforts at standardization, there is considerable room for discretion and problematic application of the tool, which can negatively impact Black families experiences and outcomes of child welfare involvement.

The third paper explores the (in)voluntary nature of voluntary ongoing service provision after an investigation, and how these supports are often presumed to be mandatory and forced upon Black families. Study findings reveal that the refusal of voluntary services can lead to Black families being pathologized as aggressive, resulting in more intrusive interventions by child welfare services and police.

The final paper investigates child protection workers' efforts to support the preservation of Black families when there was risk of separation, and in circumstances where the child(ren) were removed, how they supported family reunification. Findings highlight that in many circumstances, workers believed the potential harms of living in out-of-home-care were serious enough to increase their emphasis on safety and permanency planning to stabilize families and prevent placement.