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Re: child welfare demographics - by county
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<div>List member, I am especially interested in how demographics change as children move through the system, especially for african american children. is there a flow chart that documents these changing demographics? calls to hotline, investigations, substantiated reports, placements, etc. </div> <div> </div> <div>TM<BR><BR><B><I>Todd McDonald <tmac5528@yahoo.com></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> <DIV>List Members, is there a way to look at county statistics for child welfare populations on line? i am interested in the demographics for youth in out of home placements. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>TM<BR><BR><B><I>Rick Barth <rbarth@email.unc.edu></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">There is certainly coonsiderable data on this question --Fred
Wulczyn <BR>has recently written about rural urban differences from the perspective <BR>of disparity and disproportionality (see th Chapin Hall website for <BR>leads) and my colleagues and I have published about this in the American <BR>Journal of Orthopsychiatry, in 2006, using NSCAW as our source of <BR>information. In that analysis we showed that children and families in <BR>urban areas who enter foster care have very different characteristics <BR>than those in nonurban areas--with children in nonurban areas being much <BR>more likely to have clinical or borderline CBCL scores and families less <BR>likely to have the typical indicators of parental incapacity (such <BR>indicators as extreme poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence and so <BR>on).<BR><BR>So, your hypothesis that looking at the limits of looking at this <BR>through a child abuse and neglect lens is confirmed. The entire basis <BR>for the CFSR and our national accountability system is that children who
<BR>come into contact with CWS are similar across settings and the variation <BR>is in how the agency performs in achieving a fixed set of outcomes for <BR>them; nothing could be much farther from the truth. Although there are <BR>some commonalities acros areas--e.g., infants and adolescents are the <BR>largest relative groups entering out of home care and African American <BR>and Native American children are more likely to enter out of home <BR>care--there are huge differences in the caseloads and, hence, any effort <BR>to apply the CFSR outcomes to "incentivize" best practice should be <BR>highly restricted and balanced by a range of indicators of best <BR>practice. In time, we should move toward different indicators for <BR>children who come into contact with CWS at different ages.<BR><BR>Richard P. Barth, PhD<BR>Dean and Professor<BR>School of Social Work<BR>University of Maryland<BR>Baltimore, MD 21201<BR>rbarth@ssw.umaryland.edu<BR><BR>D F MCMAHON wrote:<BR><BR>>
Many of the states with very high rates of removal have some things in <BR>> common: they are rural states, many of them in the prairie/plains <BR>> region of the U.S. One explanation that is offered is that services <BR>> are less available in rural areas, particularly what in the northern <BR>> plains are called "frontier counties." However, I live in North Dakota <BR>> and am watching the development of a child welfare funding dispute <BR>> between the most populous county and the state. One fact that has <BR>> emerged is that, with about a fifth of the state's population, the <BR>> county has about half the kids who are wards of the state (parental <BR>> rights have been terminated). The county also has 27% of the state's <BR>> foster children. Right now I have no information as to where these <BR>> cases originated--but my impression is that generally cases stay in <BR>> the county where they started. State officials are developing
a report <BR>> at this time which may provide some answers to the demographics in the <BR>> state.<BR>> <BR>> I'm not convinced that political culture has much to do with it. <BR>> Politically conservative states with minimal investment in human <BR>> services have placement rates similar to politically more liberal <BR>> states with much more substantial investment. The Dakotas, Montana, <BR>> Nebraska--compared with Minnesota, Iowa. But is there a distinct <BR>> cultural viewpoint--not specifically related to child welfare but <BR>> ultimately impacting child welfare decisions? (In that case, is it <BR>> possible that looking at CA/N factors is not always the right place to <BR>> look???)<BR>> <BR>> I'm wondering what kind of handle anyone has on rural vs. urban out of <BR>> home placement rates relative to child population within states. The <BR>> thoughts that come to me are:<BR>> <BR>> Urban areas are associated
with greater range of problems--but also <BR>> have more access to services other than out of home placement.<BR>> Population characteristics of rural vs. urban regions within in states <BR>> that are significantly rural.<BR>> Local culture in rural counties (on the one hand, lack of services <BR>> leads to removal, on the other hand, reluctance to interfere in <BR>> families' lives and/or cultural assumptions about families in <BR>> communities where families have lived for generations)<BR>> Diversity (or lack thereof, or degree of cultural barriers between <BR>> diverse groups--in these states, native American populations vs white <BR>> definitely come to mind)<BR>> <BR>> Sheri McMahon<BR><BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <div> <HR SIZE=1> Looking for last minute shopping deals? <A href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51734/*http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping";>Find them fast with Yahoo!
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