race and child welfare

New York has become the 16th state to legalize recreational marijuana. And the new law makes clear that parents should not be judged for using it.

By Richard Barth, Jill Duerr Berrick, Melissa Jonson-Reid, Brett Drake, Johanna Greeson and Antonio Garcia The system must confront racism, but the services aren’t the issue Current calls to eliminate all elements of structural racism in the United States include proposals to abolish child welfare services.

Chapin Hall and Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program co-sponsored an invitational conference in January 2011 addressing what has been generally characterized as racial disproportionality in child welfare. This issue brief reflects the research presented at the conference, including empirical work showing that actual black maltreatment rates are significantly higher than white rates.