Black children are placed in foster care at 2.4x their population share and are moved more often, reunified less often, and have parental rights terminated at 2.4x the rate of white children

Black children represent approximately 14% of the U.S. child population but constitute 23-25% of children in foster care. Their entry rate into care is significantly higher than that of white children, even after controlling for poverty. Once in care, Black children experience worse outcomes on nearly every dimension: they are moved between placements more frequently, receive fewer appropriate services, wait longer for permanency, and are less likely to be reunified with their families. One in every 41 Black children in the United States will have their legal relationship with a parent permanently terminated by the state, compared to 1 in 100 children overall. American Indian/Alaska Native children face even steeper disproportionality, entering care at 7.77 per 1,000 children — nearly three times the white rate. Why it matters: A Black family investigated by child protective services is more likely to have their child removed even when the presenting circumstances are comparable to those of a white family investigated for the same concern. So Black children enter foster care at disproportionate rates — not because Black parents abuse or neglect at higher rates, but because reporting, investigation, and removal decisions are influenced by racial bias. So once in care, Black children are placed in less stable, less resourced placements and receive fewer family preservation services. So they spend longer in the system and cycle through more caseworkers, more placements, and more school changes. So they are more likely to have parental rights terminated and less likely to be adopted, leading to higher rates of aging out. So the child welfare system, intended to protect children from harm, instead perpetuates the intergenerational disruption of Black families. The structural root cause is that mandatory reporting systems funnel families in contact with public systems (hospitals, schools, public benefits offices) into child welfare investigations at higher rates, and Black families are disproportionately represented in these public systems due to historical and ongoing economic inequality. Caseworkers make subjective assessments of 'risk' and 'neglect' using tools that conflate poverty indicators with abuse indicators. The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was enacted in 1978 specifically to address the removal of Native children, but compliance remains inconsistent and the law's constitutionality was challenged as recently as Haaland v. Brackeen (2023).