Wednesday, May 28, 2014

After 8 years Michigan has not addressed racial inequities in foster care

Well, here we go again.

Michigan is up to its old tricks by coming out with a report to cover up all the billing fraud, ineptness of administrative oversight and what they call "racial inequity" in foster care.

With just about all of the same who worked on, and were suppose to get it right, they come together again, with shock and awe renewed, on the exact same crap they came out with 8 years ago.

For your viewing pleasure, I submit the first report on "racial inequity" in foster care from 2006.

Now, one would think that 8 years later they would have ameliorated, or at least, made an effort to address the issue of the overrepresentation of children of color in child welfare, but of course not, that would be too much like admitting they have no idea how to execute the recommendations made in the report.

The recommendations of the 2006 report was to find more money to fix the problem, which was, unmentioned in the report, that it was just hit with a salaciously horrific state audit of fraud.

Here is the result of "wow-we-did-not-know-this-was-a-problem" report findings:


It should be noted that not one original parent, not one foster kid who survived, participated in this report.

Nothing in the findings identified the extreme-reaching "one-drop-rule" labeling technique when sticking a kid, or parents, in a racial category.

Too bad the state will not, or cannot, investigate agencies like Black Family Development to find out why so many Black kids are in the system.

By the way, what exactly is "Black Family Development", as opposed to, obviously,  I assume there must be the counterpart called "White Family Development"?

The reason wht there are racial inequities in foster care is because the system was designed that way.

At least the report did recommend steering away from using poverty as a reason to put kids in the system.


Learn more: BEVERLY TRAN: After 8 years Michigan has not addressed racial inequities in foster care http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2014/05/after-8-years-michigan-has-not.html#ixzz333fTTPrL
Stop Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare 

Don't Beat Your Foster Parents - Baby LK Report For May 25th 2014

Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protection industry.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Report finds racial disparity in Michigan's foster care system

Here is a fun fact as to why the report found racial disparity in Michigan's foster care system:

It was designed that way!

Just ask Bill Johnson, Superintendent of the Michigan Children's Institute.

Report’s Findings

Key findings from a report from the Michigan Race Equity Coalition in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice:
• Minority kids were 2.1 times more likely to age out of foster care than white children. Hispanic kids were 1.1 times more likely, American Indian 1.4 times more likely, and black children 2.3 times more likely to age out of the system.
• Black children were 1.6 times more likely than white children to live in families investigated for abuse or neglect.
• Children from minority families were 1.3 times more likely than white kids to be removed from their families’ homes due to abuse and neglect.

Michigan’s minority children are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to age out of the foster care system without being adopted or returned to their families, a new report shows.

Children of color also are more likely to be removed from their families for abuse and neglect, according to the report from the Michigan Race Equity Coalition in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice, to be released today.

“This gives us verifiable data that policymakers, legislators really like,” said Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly, who co-chaired the coalition effort with public policy advocate and former legislator Lynn Jondahl. “That is really what moves decision-makers faster.”

Those behind the report hope it will help improve early intervention and community-based services for families, win more funding for child abuse and neglect prevention and lead to better training for child welfare workers to help them discern the difference between poverty and neglect.

About 13,000 kids in Michigan are in foster care at any given time, according to the Department of Human Services. Using data from 2013, the coalition’s report compares the number of minority children with the number of white children in care. It found:

•Minority kids were 2.1 times more likely to age out of foster care than white children. Hispanic kids were 1.1 times more likely, American Indian 1.4 times more likely and black children 2.3 times more likely to age out of the system.

•Black children were 1.6 times more likely than white children to live with families investigated for abuse or neglect. Kids from Hispanic or American Indian families were slightly less likely than their white counterparts to live in families investigated for abuse or neglect.

•Children from minority families were 1.3 times more likely than white kids to be removed from their families’ homes due to abuse and neglect.

That’s troubling, said Jane Zehnder-Merrell of the Michigan League for Public Policy. She served as data coordinator for the project.

“That suggests we are not doing enough upstream to get these kids safe or keep these kids safe in their own homes,” she said.

“A lot of these kids get pulled into the child welfare system because that’s our response rather than helping their families with economic stability,” she said.

She said erosion in assistance for poor families and school funding in recent years has made the situation more precarious for many families.

“People are really struggling to maintain any kind of stability for their kids,” she said. “It used to be that schools were the bedrock in the community. That’s not the case anymore, particularly in our most desperately poor cities.”

Kelly said she’s encouraged by some recent changes, including a 2011 law that allows foster kids who meet certain criteria such as working or attending college to receive continuing assistance until they are 21.

The state also has boosted the number of foster care caseworkers.

Jondahl said a pilot program in Saginaw County involving courts, child welfare and juvenile justice systems provides a model for reducing the disproportionate numbers.

He also said an advisory panel will be created, meeting regularly, to check on progress in meeting the recommendations in the report.

“It won’t be just a report to put on the shelf,” he said. “That, to me, makes all the difference in the world.”