Seeking Racial Equity in the Dependency Court

Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Child Welfare System

Dependency courts across the country have adopted a goal to reduce or eliminate racial disparities and disproportionality in child welfare. For some, this has meant the creation of a committee to regularly review disparity and disproportionality numbers. For others, it has meant reshaping dependency hearings and judicial practice in those hearings. And for some, it has meant working off-the-bench to convene and lead multidisciplinary collaborative teams to consider how race intersects with decisions to refer families to the dependency court, with decisions to remove children from their homes and with decisions to return children back to their parents. For juvenile dependency judges to make an impact on racial disparities and disproportionality, they will need to move beyond the bench and bring together stakeholders and communities to talk about how they understand, hold, and weigh the full ecology of every child and family that comes before them.