Foster Care & African-American Youth

This book explores issues of race in regard to establishing a viable system of foster care for today’s African American youth. Thirty-three states have cited high rates of poverty among African Americans as a factor influencing children’s entry into foster care. African American children also stay in foster care longer, in part, because of a greater reliance on relatives to provide foster care. While states viewed some federal policies as helpful for reducing the proportion of African American children in foster care, they also expressed concerns regarding policies that limit the use of federal funds for services to prevent the removal of children in the first place and to place children with legal guardians. States also expressed concerns that federal funding emphasised finding permanent homes for children after they had been removed. This book aims to resolve the difficult issues of establishing new guidelines for foster care in the unique cases of so many African American children. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.