Interactive Simulation Planning Strategically

History of Minority Populations in the Child Welfare System 1

University of Phoenix

Della Martinez

History of Minority Populations in the Child Welfare System 2

The articles I chose to write about are, “Minority children and the child welfare system: An historical perspective”. This article covers a minority that receives help from a human service program; going in to detail about the interworking of the services, the role of the government, civil rights, transracial adoption, and the recent changes between 1970- 1988.

The article discusses African American children, Native American children, Hispanic American children and the child welfare system and the many ways the services varies during the discussed years. This article also gives a broader view of how these children have been treated and the interventions that have changed over the years discussed.

The article starts off with discussing the treatment of minority children in the U.S. child welfare system and how racism has manifested in inequitable policies and how the services are lacking. The article says that the system responds slowly to crises in minority’s families more slowly than they would for the majority and that they have less access to support services such as day care and homemaker services having less comprehensive service plans when it comes to African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

Statistically is says that between 1970 and 1980, the proportions of racial and ethnic minorities in the general population increased from 16.7 percent to 20.2; a 52 percent growth compared to the 48 for nonminority (Leobardo, 1987). The Census data for the year 1980 revealed that 78.7 percent of the white population was under the age of 19 and that 21.3 percent were minority (Bogue, 1985). During these years the Census could not be very accurate for all the minorities because the data was not available due to the lack of uniformity in defining racial and ethnic categories.

History of...