Current State
Current State of the Front Door to the Child Welfare System
The front doors, or entry points, of most child welfare systems are primarily focused on investigating child abuse and neglect. Though child safety is critical to the mission of child welfare systems, they leave out many families who need assistance but whose cases do not rise to the legally defined level of neglect or abuse. However, being unable to access subsequent support through the child welfare system often leads families to future investigations due to those needs going unmet, and determinations that they are cases of abuse or neglect as defined by law, though families sought support earlier.
Although more child welfare systems around the country are contracting services with community-based organizations, the front door continues to be managed through government agencies that are deeply mistrusted by many Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ communities based on histories of harm. Services that are contracted out are also predominantly going to large white-led nonprofits that do not have roots in communities of color.
Structural racism is embedded in the policies, procedures, and workforce at the front door of the child welfare system, leading to fewer Black, Indigenous, and Brown families accessing voluntary supports and more Black, Indigenous, and Brown families being investigated. That same structural racism is built into the family court system leading to disproportionate rates of child removals and foster care placements.
Native and Indigenous child welfare services are managed through a complex set of legislation and policies between multiple federal agencies and sovereign tribal nations, leading to a level of bureaucracy and discriminatory policies that directly contribute to a disproportionate number of Native and Indigenous children being removed from their parents’ care, both on and off of Tribal lands.
There continues to be limited state and federal funding for voluntary services and community-based support for families in need, including a lack of youth-centered family counseling and reconciliation services for LGTBQ youth. This contributes to a disproportionate number of LGBTQ youth in the child welfare system.
School systems have little to no resources for youth and families who they identify as struggling and often must turn to the child welfare system for assistance. Doing so can trigger negative consequences for the youth and family, particularly for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ youth and their families.
Older youth have little to no decision-making power in the types of services they access or the types of placement (family, kinship, foster care, or independence) while in foster care. They report that the system is punitive, disempowering, and leaves them unprepared to navigate adulthood.
Older youth cannot access supportive services or economic resources outside of their family unit. Leaving older youth no supported pathway to independence other than coming formally into the child welfare system often leads to foster care or group home placement as opposed to supported independence.