A roundup of some of The Imprint’s most impactful stories from the past year
Ten years ago, Nassau County, New York embarked on a child welfare experiment. It hoped that stripping race information out of case information used at foster care removal meetings could at least partially correct the massive overrepresentation of Black children in the county’s custody.
The data in Nassau is far from conclusive. But interest in the concept has spread: There is still talk of expanding the color-blind removal process statewide in New York, and several other cities and states are considering a test of the process in the near future.
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.
Over the spring, California decided to put a hold on plans to test blind removals statewide.
Two months later, Los Angeles leaders agreed to give the process a try, starting with one county as a test case.