Children of Black, Hispanic, and Native American parents are more likely to enter foster care than their white peers.  Nationally 33% of kids in foster care are Black, but they make up only 15% of the child population. Yet federal studies indicate that child abuse and neglect is actually lower for Black families than it is for whites. Both nationally and in North Carolina the rate of Native American children in foster care is disproportionately high relative to the demographics of the population as a whole. This phenomenon is known in the child welfare field as disproportionality. Disproportionality in the child welfare system is one more example of the way racism infects the systems in our society that exist to protect but can cause so much pain.

Check out this report that details the data being used to better understand dis-proportionality in the child welfare system.