Recently released statistics show Minnesota still leads the country—on an unfortunate statistic. We continue to have some of worst foster care disprorportionality rates for Native American and African American children in the country. This means that the percent of children of color who are removed from their homes is much higher than their proportion of the child population, and that disproportionality is much higher in Minnesota than in other states.

These statistics are certainly discouraging. While in many ways the system has improved, especially in decreasing the number of children in out-of-home care in total, racial disparities remain. This is especially true for American Indian children, despite years of discussions, studies and initiatives.

Among states, Minnesota consistently ranks near the top on many positive indicators—for white children. Clearly not all children are benefitting from the state’s strengths. Not only are children of color more likely to be removed from their homes, they are disproportionally more likely to die in infancy, grow up in poverty and experience the life long effects of toxic stressors on their health and well-being.

A new analysis from Chapin Hall provides a little—but not much--more insight into the issue. Looking at poverty, race and maltreatment data across states and counties, Fred Wulczyn found the states with the greatest racial disparities in their child welfare system were also the states with the lowest child poverty rates. And, while overall high child poverty states have the highest rates of child welfare involvement (poverty is highly correlated with child neglect), these high child poverty states have some of the lowest racial disparity rates in their child welfare system. Wulczyn also found a much weaker relationship between black child poverty rates and black child maltreatment rates than is found between white child poverty rates and white child maltreatment rates.

As Wulczyn asks, “What social and bureaucratic processes produce these data?”

The answers will become increasingly relevant to all Minnesotans because the economy of the future depends on the children being born today. Currently, more than one-fourth of the babies being born in Minnesota are children of color, and their proportion of the total will continue to increase. This represents a great opportunity to strengthen the economic and social diversity of Minnesota.

For a healthy future for all, we need to get at the root causes of the statistics. This will entail a close and no doubt painful look at issues of racism, discrimination and unequal treatment in all sectors of our state.

For more information see Disproportionality Rates for Children of Color in Foster Care