UCLA Pritzker Center works to reform racial inequities in L.A. County foster care 

Los Angeles County has one of the largest populations of foster children in the world, with a striking overrepresentation of Black children. 

In 2023, more than 23,400 children were under the supervision of the county’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Black children accounted for nearly one-fourth of foster youth, though they made up only 7% of all county kids. About 100 Indigenous youth were foster kids, double that of their county population. Latine children accounted for almost two in three foster children, consistent with their county presence.

The ideal steps needed to decrease the large number of L.A. County’s foster children, including the root causes for the racial disparities, have remained elusive for decades.

The UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families is tackling the challenge of child welfare reform with research and community input as part of a multidisciplinary approach across campus and L.A. County. Their self-described mission is to “safely reduce the need for foster care” in furtherance of “equitable” child welfare system reform.

Perhaps lofty goals. But, the key to that mission might be simpler than imagined.

“In a county as racially diverse as ours, if you look at the way Black families — even Native American families— are so overrepresented in the system, why aren’t we asking different questions?,” said Tyrone Howard, UCLA education professor and co-founder of the Pritzker Center.

Howard, whose research centers equity, culture, race, teaching, and learning, said if the goal is to decrease the large number of children in foster care, logic suggests looking for ways to reduce the overrepresentation of children of color. 

“The way we do that is with research, education and partnerships making sure we are engaging policy recommendations using our research chops,” he said.

An overlooked challenge in child welfare

“What we discovered is that there is this large elephant in the room that no one was talking about and that was racial disproportionality,” said Howard, after talking to others working in child welfare. 

Racial disproportionality is a mismatch in the proportion, either too many or too few, of children of specific race or ethnicity in the child welfare system, compared to their portion in the overall population. Racial disparity occurs when there are unequal numbers of one race or ethnic group compared to other races or ethnic groups. 

The overrepresentation of children of color, especially Black children, is already evident in the families who are referred to child welfare, so in part, the agencies bear an undue burden of societal racism.

Nationwide, a multitude of reasons contribute to the disproportionate number of youth of color in foster care, including poverty, domestic violence, lack of family and community resources, intrinsic biases among child welfare workers, and historically grounded institutional racism. 

The murder of George Floyd galvanized a “series of hard conversations about the child welfare system,” said the center’s executive director Taylor Dudley. “For the first time, the system became more honest and open [about racial disproportionality],” 

Dudley and Howard said having those conversations helps raise awareness about racism and implicit bias in the system. Implicit bias, unconscious prejudice against a specific group, can negatively impact decision making in child welfare cases. 

Advocating for equity and reform

Since the Pritzker Center was established in 2019, staff have completed or participated in 10 projects, including a test of blind removal.

Blind removal is a decision-making process about placement of children and families referred to child welfare which eliminates all information that could identify their race or ethnicity. A blind removal program in New York’s Nassau County demonstrated success, though limited.

To address color consciousness and anti-racism, the blind removal pilot program was launched by Pritzker researchers in partnership with DCFS, at the request of District 2 Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who represents areas primarily in South Los Angeles.

In a motion to the Board in 2021, Mitchell said, “From my perspective, the data compels us to seek out every practice that will help us guard against bias and, ultimately, the overrepresentation of children of color in our child welfare system.”

The results of L.A.’s blind removal pilot were mixed, due in part to the small number of families evaluated. Social workers often cited concerns for children’s safety as the reason for not using the blind removal process. 

Currently, no DCFS offices are using blind removal protocols.

‘Courageous conversations’ around Black youth in foster care

The blind removal pilot is just one of several programs the Pritzker Center has centered the needs and voices of Black community members.

The purpose of Courageous Conversations, a joint project with the Foster Together Network completed in 2021, was to gain insight about the experiences of Black youth who had been in foster care, including the dynamics of placement with non-Black caregivers in foster family homes, group homes or residential facilities.

Dudley, who is white, and Howard, a Black man, interviewed 19 young adults, averaging age 25. Dudley said seeing the young Black men connect with Howard was powerful, as he helped them process some of their experiences as racism.

“It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my career,” said Dudley, “I’ll never forget it.”

The young adults reported that social workers and caregivers saw them as “set for failure,” and they were treated as such. The participants also said that it seemed that Black children were more easily removed from their families. They also noted problems getting appropriate care for their hair and skin. 

The findings led to several recommendations for systemic improvement, including education for foster caregivers about hair and skin care, racial literacy and cultural competency, and improved funding and resources for original families to facilitate reunification. 

Quantifying domestic violence’s role in child welfare

In 2020, DCFS, Pritzker Center researchers and other stakeholders examined the information gaps around the intersection of domestic violence and child welfare cases. 

DCFS staff informed Pritzker researchers that data about domestic violence in DCFS cases wasn’t collected in a “countable” manner.  Child welfare case data in California is entered into a computer-based system designed for case management by social workers. However, that system has evolved as a data repository, because it houses federally-mandated statistics, such as demographics and foster placement. 

Consequently, DCFS staff conducted a manual review of the narratives in the case reports for notation of domestic violence.

Among the nearly 39,000 cases that year, domestic violence was involved in more than half of cases. 

“If you can address those 50%, you can really help keep a lot of kids out of foster care,” said Dudley, in a 2023 interview with CalMatters.

The project‘s final report made recommendations, including improved training about domestic violence for case workers and the judicial officers in dependency courts, changes in mandated reporting and better support for families living in violence.

Step one: build community trust 

In addition to seeking out the overlooked experiences of foster youth, Pritzker Center 

staff wanted to assess the unmet needs in oft-forgotten High Desert communities, which seemed to have many challenges. 

“[The Antelope Valley is] a long-underserved area and a hotbed for all of the issues we care about: race, disproportionality, migration of Black and brown families, poverty and educational access,” said Dudley.

The Antelope Valley has more than 540,000 residents: Nearly 14% are Black, close to half are Latine and more than a third are white. The median household income in this 3,000 square mile area is about $52,500, and nearly 1 in 4 residents live below the federal poverty level, according to census data. In comparison, the median household income for the county overall is about 30% higher and about 10% fewer people live in poverty. 

Building trust with Antelope Valley communities, which include the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, was easier with the presence of Pritzker students, some with ties to the area, including Mia Meza.  An Antelope Valley “native,” Meza graduated from the UCLA School of Nursing in 2024 and continues to work with the project.

Meza said some Antelope Valley residents thought UCLA would swoop in for their research projects and then leave, but the Pritzker team has stayed.

“We do the research, but we are here for the community,” said Meza.

The Pritzker team started by joining in grassroot efforts, such as distributing food, diapers or other essentials, to learn about the desert communities and their needs. This helped cultivate trust and build relationships with residents and local organizations.

In addition, Pritzker staff partnered with the local DCFS office in Lancaster and the nonprofit Valley Oasis to evaluate possible reforms for intervening in child welfare cases involving domestic violence. The work of Valley Oasis is rooted in domestic violence prevention and intervention, including a shelter for men, women and children who are struggling with domestic violence. 

Lisa Dawson, senior director of trauma services at Valley Oasis, said Pritzker researchers wanted to identify barriers that kept families from seeking safety, such as fear of their children being removed by DCFS if they came to the shelter.

Many Valley Oasis shelter clients have past or current involvement with the child welfare welfare system, such as a history of being reported to DCFS or had a pending case. But Valley Oasis staff had almost no interactions with the DCFS personnel.

Valley Oasis staff created “DV 101,” to provide training for social workers about domestic violence from an advocacy perspective, with financial and research assistance from Pritzker Center. Subsequently, DCFS staff provided training for the Valley Oasis team about the agency’s approach to families entangled in violence. Focus groups with domestic violence survivors, child welfare workers and Valley Oasis staff were completed to learn about their experiences.  

The project identified multiple barriers for parent survivors, including racial bias against Black families, poverty, lack of housing and other resources, and struggles navigating the child welfare system. The collaboration between the domestic violence service providers and child welfare staff improved support for survivors. Recommendations from the lessons learned included:

• Calling for more collaboration between DCFS offices and local agencies, 
• Improving access to resources for families at risk, 
• Access to public transportation in the Antelope Valley, and 
• “..actively addressing and dismantling anti-Black racism in both practice and policy,” among other strategies.

“It’s been so impactful to build those relationships… all in the best interest for our participants,” said Lili Torres, domestic violence services director for Valley Oasis.

“The dream for me,”  said Shanice Brown, senior case manager for the Valley Oasis shelter, “is to keep the relationship going. It’s huge,”

Brown said DCFS consults with her, and she can reach out to them on behalf of families.

“This collaboration has enhanced our social workers’ understanding of survivors’ experiences and needs and has given Valley Oasis staff a more clear understanding of the role our social workers play in child safety,” said a DCFS spokesperson in an email to AfroLA. “Pritzker also has worked with DCFS to improve equity in child welfare decisions, efforts intended to foster a more just and supportive environment for children and families impacted by our system.”

Dudley credits the openness of Brandon Nichols, DCFS director since 2022, as one of the reasons the partnership with the agency has been fruitful. Historically, DCFS leadership has not always been as receptive to outside organizations.

Prioritizing child safety

Pritzker Center is not without their naysayers, notably concerns that some proposed reforms could place children in harm’s way, such as blind removal. The pilot program ran from August 2022 until July 2023 in the DCFS West LA office and from September 2022 through August 2023 in the Compton-Carson office.

Some of Pritzker’s projects have been criticized for relying on qualitative data in the research, as opposed to quantitative (countable) data, which is often viewed as more valid by the scientific community. However, qualitative research can provide insight into “real-world” issues, and it is often the first step for designing subsequent quantitative studies.

“(We) were doing as we can. We’ve started collecting small amounts of qualitative data to start understanding the experiences that people are having systematically,” said Brenda Tully, research director for the Pritzker Center.

Read more from this series: Is the blind removal model in child welfare scalable? It’s complicated

Social workers’ concerns about child safety, though, ultimately hobbled the success of the program. But Pritzker leadership still considers it a win, as some of the participating social workers of all races and ethnicities became more aware of their own racism when evaluating families.

“The blind removal project was never about just blind removal, it was about raising awareness, including self-awareness and awareness that systems perpetuate disproportionality and racism,” said Dudley. 

Looking forward

A big part of the center’s plan is training students. Undergraduate and graduate students from multiple disciplines, such as social work, medicine, education and policy, work with the center to gain a broader perspective on child welfare. 

“We aim to create the next generation of child welfare professions,” said Dudley, “and we want them to think about what they’ve learned here.”

Meza, a recent UCLA graduate, is seeking a nursing position in the Antelope Valley, where she can continue to serve her community while using what she describes as “a social welfare lens.”

The Pritzker Center’s goal of “strengthening children and families” is early in its journey, but the center has already contributed valuable research to caring for foster children, influenced DCFS policies related to domestic violence, and elevated conversations about the heavy toll of systemic racism upon Black children and families.

“The only path forward to ensure the well-being and safety of Los Angeles County’s Black children and families is to arrive at the understanding that we all share in that responsibility,” said DCFS Director Nichols. “UCLA Pritzker Center espouses that belief.”

Editor’s note: The Pritzker Center was started with a generous donation from the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation. The center has also received funding from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, which supported this reporting project. However, AfroLA continues to maintain editorial control over all content.