Black kids failed by ‘systemic racism’
Disproportionately high number of children being taken into care brings call for sweeping changes
A system that “undermines the stability of African Canadian families and can, in fact, destroy them” needs sweeping reforms, says a hard-hitting report on reducing the number of black kids in the care of children’s aid.
The two-volume report, obtained by the Star ahead of its release, is called “One Vision One Voice: Changing the child welfare system to better serve African Canadians.” It demands that every aspect of child protection in Ontario be transformed by “anti-black racism” structures and practices.
The report was triggered by an ongoing Star investigation, which revealed that 41 per cent of children in the care of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto were black, in a city where only 8 per cent of children are black.
“Throughout the consultations, participants reminded us of the enormous human suffering caused by the systemic racism in the child welfare system,” says the report, written by a committee struck by the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies and funded by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
“We can’t tinker with the system while African Canadian children and families continue to suffer.”
The committee, made up of 18 African Canadian community leaders, calls for changes to provincial child protection laws, the children’s ministry, Ontario’s 47 privately run children’s aid societies and to the way educators, police and medical staff refer children suspected of being at risk of abuse or neglect.
“The goal is to achieve equity in outcomes for African Canadian children and families,” the report says.
The report is to be released Thursday at a daylong Toronto symposium of black community leaders and children’s aid society officials from across the province. Children’s Minister Michael Coteau, also responsible for anti-racism in Ontario, will address the gathering.
The committee, led by children’s aid diversity expert Kike Ojo, called Toronto’s rate of disproportionality “extreme.”
The report notes that black families have been complaining about their treatment by children’s aid for years, but it took the Star’s coverage to bring “this issue to the fore for the mainstream community and for provincial politicians.”
During 16 public consultations across Ontario, the committee heard concerns about black families “being over-scrutinized and over-surveilled by educators, police and medical professionals” — groups that refer cases to children’s aid societies. The experience was compared to the police practice of “carding,” which has resulted in a disproportionate number of black people being stopped, questioned and documented.
There were also widespread complaints about children’s aid workers with no understanding of black culture making biased judgments that unnecessarily remove kids from their homes. They’re too often placed with white foster parents living in white communities, making the development of positive racial pride impossible.
Black parents and youth involved with children’s aid are more likely to be charged by police, the report says, noting concerns about a “child welfare to prison pipeline.”
The report’s sweeping recommendations reflect what it calls a “complex web of economic and societal factors that extend far beyond what occurs within the child welfare system.” It requires solutions beyond children’s aid, including tackling racist barriers in the economy that condemn many African Canadian families to poverty. Families living in pov- erty, the report adds, have less access to affordable housing, mental-health services and other supports needed for stability.
The 18 recommendations include calls for the ministry to change the Child and Family Services Act to “ensure equitable outcomes” and to fund new African Canadian community service agencies focused on supporting families and reducing the need for children to be placed with foster parents or in group homes.
A “disproportionality and disparity unit” should be created within the ministry to make sure children’s aid societies reduce the number of black kids in care.
And an “independent provincial body” should be set up to “oversee” the child welfare system.
The ministry must also ensure “appropriate financial resources are allocated” to support the recommendations.
Included in the report is a 17-page “practice framework,” detailing how children’s aid societies should change the way they interact with black families. It calls for a “cultural shift” — societies should focus on giving families services that keep children safe and healthy in their own homes, rather than apprehending them.
If children need to be removed, they should be placed with extended family or black foster parents. All foster and adoptive parents should get mandatory anti-racism training, the report says.
The ministry should require all societies to collect race-based data and report the numbers publicly every year. Goals should also be set to reduce the number of black kids in care.
The report calls on children’s aid societies to have boards of directors and staff that reflect the diverse communities they serve.
Each society should also set up an African Canadian advisory committee that includes former youth in care and provide anti-racism training to all staff.
It’s now up to Coteau and the OACAS to decide which recommendations they will implement. The OACAS has already taken some steps, including getting all children’s aid societies to agree to collect race-based data.
On average,15,625 Ontario children were in foster or group-home care in 2014-15. The latest figures indicate that only 2 per cent of children are removed from their home due to sexual abuse and 13 per cent for physical abuse. The rest are removed because of neglect, emotional maltreatment and exposure to violence between their parents or caregivers.