New Poll Shows Common Ground for Bipartisan Action on Child Welfare.
Polarization has become entrenched in American politics and policy, and the realm of child welfare is not immune to that. The intrusive nature of the work and the presences of persistent racial and class disproportionality have fractured the field into tribes, with some even calling for the abolition of the system entirely.
Not so for the American people. Groundbreaking new polling on child welfare reveals a sturdy consensus that crosses many typical political fault lines. Americans remain deeply committed to vulnerable children and families and desire to see our systems hold a strong balance between child safety and family integrity.
The U.S. child welfare system touches the lives of more than 3.6 million children each year. Those serving in this work face tangled situations at every turn: from the web of federal and state policies governing the public and private organizations that form the system to the constant flow of painful human dilemmas — family breakdown, addiction, poverty, child neglect and abuse.
Statistics from within the system reveal tragic realities and difficult decisions at every turn. About 60% of children in the foster system spend over 12 months in care and one in five remain for three years or longer. In 2022, nearly 19,000 youth left foster care without being reunified or adopted, many entering homelessness.
Questions of class and race add further complication. For example, it is not abuse, but neglect — often associated with material poverty — that account for 76% of child welfare investigations. Many of these families could very likely remain together with modest material and relational support. And yet it is also true that more children die each year from neglect than abuse, and well over 90% of investigations into material neglect also include other concerns related to substance abuse, domestic violence, mental illness or other serious risks.
Likewise, American Indian, biracial, and Black families are much more likely to experience the pain of separation. This has resulted in a serious disproportionality in the child welfare system, with these groups making up a significantly higher percentage of foster youth compared to their proportion of the general population.
Many observers see in this data evidence that racial biases influence the subjective decisions of social workers, law enforcement and judges. At the same time, data that depend less on subjective judgment — including infant deaths from abuse and unintentional drug overdose deaths — suggest that disproportionality in the child welfare system often tracks closely with more objective indicators of risk.
Conflicting observations like these would seem to set the stage for fierce differences of perspective without much hope for common ground solutions. This is indeed the case in some circles. Competing tribes have formed and hardened, often at the extremes. Some recommend abolishing foster care altogether.
But among ordinary Americans, the groundbreaking Harris Poll commissioned by the Bipartisan Policy Center suggests something very different: a remarkable degree of agreement. Certainly, various sub-groups evidence distinct opinions and emphases. But overall, whether Republican or Democrat, religious or nonreligious, white, Black, or brown, a notable constellation of common values and perspectives emerge.
For example, in contrast to the this-versus-that debates seen among many activists, the poll revealed that most Americans are deeply committed to both child protection and family preservation. They want to keep families together whenever safely possible, and a robust 74% expressed confidence that even neglectful parents can ultimately provide safe care for their children if provided needed support. At the same time, most also want to see a formal investigation when there are signs a baby was exposed to illegal substances during pregnancy (81%) or of domestic violence in a home (79%).
Similarly, while 57% of respondents feel that authorities should be wary of placing children with relatives of parents who’ve neglected or abused their children, huge majorities still want the government to prioritize kinship placements when safe. A full 90% believe that authorities should seek out extended family members willing to take a child before resorting to foster care with strangers.
Likewise, respondents affirmed a limited but vital role for government alongside the work of dedicated nonprofits. Two-thirds believe that both governmental and community/religious organizations are needed to effectively respond to concerns of child neglect and abuse. And while many respondents express wariness of government overreach, 95% believe that the government should play a primary role in child maltreatment investigations, not private organizations alone.
To some, these data may appear contradictory. But we believe they show a remarkably incisive sense of the tensions that can, and often must, be held to effectively address complex human needs. The child welfare system must emphasize: both child protection and family preservation; both a limited-yet-vital role for government and the critical contributions of community and faith-based nonprofits; and both the importance of kinship placements and a need for non-kin foster families.
Despite the polarization of our time, Americans remain deeply committed to our children, especially the most vulnerable. The time is ripe for leaders to work across typical fault lines to weave a new narrative for child welfare in America — framed by hope, compassion and the enduring commitments of the American people.
