Latino Children More Likely To Be Placed In Foster Care.

Latino children are three times more likely to be placed in foster care than whites*, according to Ruth Massinga, president and CEO of Casey Family Programs, who addressed members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a luncheon in Washington, D.C. Casey Family Programs is the nation’s largest foundation dedicated solely to providing and improving — and ultimately preventing the need for — foster care.

“More Latinos than any other group are entering the system at or under the age of one — exactly when they are beginning to talk,” said Massinga. “I can’t tell you how destructive that is to their heritage and their sense of self, unless there is great care taken to recruit caregivers who share their same cultural heritage. It’s almost as if we designed a system intended to suppress the development of a healthy Latino family.”

Massinga emphasized that children of color are over-represented in the child welfare system and too often have poorer experiences than white children when they are in the system and when they leave it — even when they come from the same situations and circumstances. This is also referred to as disproportionality.

On August 25, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) asked the General Accountability Office (GAO) for a federal study into this problem. Casey, in collaboration with state agencies across the country, is working to eliminate disproportionality through innovative approaches that, among other things, address one of its root causes: institutional racism.

To address the problem in the Latino community, Massinga offered several solutions, including:

Working to prevent the need for foster care — Even in the strongest families, the stress of work and money can undermine sound parenting. Casey recently established Powerful Families, a program to promote personal and community development as essential building blocks for effective parenting.

Support for kinship care — Family members who step up and take on the responsibility of raising their grandkids, nieces and nephews deserve the same support as foster parents. Currently, there are approximately six million children and youth throughout the country who are being raised by grandparents or other family members. Yet, at the federal and state policy level, little is done to support kinship caregivers.

Massinga also highlighted a report by Casey and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which outlined recommendations to improve access to higher education for youth in foster care. Young adults who were in foster care as children are far less likely to attend or graduate from college than their peers, according to a recent Casey study of former foster children. Casey Family Programs has a presence across the country and collaborates with foster, kinship and adoptive parents to provide safe, permanent and loving families for youth in foster care. The foundation also works with counties, states, and American Indian and Alaska Native tribes to improve services and outcomes for the more than 500,000 young people in out-of-home care.

For more information at http://www.casey.org

*Special AFCARS analysis