African-American Infants Nearly 3 Times More Likely Than White Infants
To Be Placed in Foster Care According to Chapin Hall Study

Chicago, IL, September 27, 2007 - A new study by Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago finds that African-American infants are nearly 3 times more likely than white infants to be placed in foster care. This finding, drawn from records of one-third of all counties in the United States over a five-year period, begins to explain the overrepresentation of African-American children in the nation's foster care systems. National data show that of the more than 500,000 children in foster care, roughly 37 percent are African American, even though they make up only 15 percent of the nation's 80 million children.

The Chapin Hall report, Racial Disparity in Foster Care Admissions, also found that while racial disparity went down from 2000 to 2005, this was because fewer urban children of both races were placed in foster care, and the rate of placement of white children increased in nonurban counties.

The study, funded by Casey Family Programs, is the first to examine how racial disparity in foster care placement differs locally. Data were derived by linking U.S. Census data to Chapin Hall's Multistate Foster Care Data Archive, which includes administrative records of more than 1.5 million children in foster care.

"We looked at a cross section of urban and rural counties and reached some counterintuitive findings," said Fred Wulczyn, research fellow at Chapin Hall and lead author of the study. "We saw that disparity was actually lower in places where the risk of placement is greater, that is, in counties with relatively high poverty rates and a less-educated adult population."

"Disparity in the nation's child welfare system is drawing national attention, and rightly so," Wulczyn said. "Our findings sharpen what we know. The hope is that leaders will use what we are learning to confront the problem with a renewed sense of purpose, so that families are helped in the ways they need most, and so that fewer children have to be separated from their families."

"This report reasserts that now is the time to address the issue of disparity in the foster care system," said Peter Pecora, senior director of research services of Casey Family Programs. "Child welfare systems, along with community, government, and foundation partners, need to continue to focus their attention at finding solutions to reducing disparity among African American children. Chapin Hall's study provides evidence that one size cannot fit all—that we should be looking at the age of children and where they live when making decisions about prevention and intervention services. By raising the bar for how we meet the needs of African-American children, we will raise the standard of care for all children."

A copy of the study can be found on the Chapin Hall website at www.chapinhall.org.

Chapin Hall Center for Children is an independent policy research center located at the University of Chicago. Its multidisciplinary research agenda encompasses the needs of all children, with special attention devoted to populations that experience significant problems—such as maltreatment, poverty, and mental and physical illness—and to the service systems designed to address those challenges.

Casey Family Programs' mission is to provide and improve—and ultimately to prevent the need for—foster care. Established by UPS founder Jim Casey, the Seattle-based national operating foundation has served children, youth, and families in the child welfare system since 1966. The foundation operates in two ways. It provides direct services, and it promotes advances in child welfare practice and policy. Casey collaborates with foster, kinship, and adoptive parents to provide safe, loving homes for youth in its direct care. The foundation also collaborates 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 across the United States.

* * *