In this opinion piece for NBC News's Think, Shanta Trivedi, a clinical teaching fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, argues that "if we’re serious about protecting Black families as a whole, we cannot limit the conversation to the police alone. We need to transform the child welfare system, too." In the article, Trivedi shines a light on the "lesser-known police-to-foster care pipeline that is often the starting point for the destruction of families and horrific long-term outcomes for children, particularly Black children."
The author describes how, in the United States, Black families are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system and experience bias throughout the process. Black parents, says Trivedi, are more likely to be reported to child protective services and are more likely than white parents to have their children removed from their care. One aspect of this is that Black families are often in more contact with police. "A recent study out of Cornell University found that Black families were investigated almost twice as often as white families. Police are often responsible for initiating referrals to child protection agencies, and since police are more likely to be in Black neighborhoods, they are more likely to be involved in triggering a family review process than in places they patrol less."
Children in care, the article notes, face worse outcomes on the whole than their peers who are not in foster care. Many experience abuse or neglect in care or are placed with untrained carers who are not able to provide the necessary supports. "This may lead to children being shuffled from home to home, which reinforces negative beliefs about themselves and their worth. Ninety percent of foster children who experience five or more moves will end up in the juvenile justice system."
Trivedi concludes with some solutions to addressing the overrepresentation of Black children in foster care and the foster care-to-prison pipeline that may result.