Jessica Pryce

Driven by evidence that child welfare decision-makers judge parents of color more harshly and are more likely to remove their children, there is growing interest in a program that proposes to weed out racial bias when social workers weighing allegations of abuse and neglect decide whether to remove a child from their parents.

Two years ago, I wrote a column about the history and lingering trauma from government sanctioned family separation. The impact of family separation is felt by Black families in a disproportionate way; Black children are consistently over-represented in our foster care system.

The child protective services sector already struggles in many ways relating to child safety, permanency, well-being and equity. A system that already had issues with demystifying dependency court hearings, reunifying families, strengthening parenting capacity and prioritizing equity is now carrying an even heavier weight: the strain from the coronavirus.

Latagia Tyronce’s two children were playing and one, a toddler, was burned by a blow-dryer. Despite the support of the children’s grandmother, and the compelling evidence that this was an accident, Ohio’s Lucas County Department of Children’s Services removed Tyronce’s children and she was arrested for felony child endangerment.

Social workers and social scientists have a duty to educate, clarify and raise consciousness when empirically unfounded conclusions that can be harmful to marginalized populations are promoted as fact. Some may read Naomi Schafer Riley’s blog for the American Enterprise Institute – No, The Child Welfare System Isn’t Racist – and deem it as just another piece written from a shortsighted perspective steeped in white privilege.