News Item
Cal-ICWA Wraps Up Focus Groups With Foster Youth Service Providers
Posted on Mar 12, 2009
SACRAMENTO, CA – March 12, 2009
This month, Cal-ICWA is wrapping up it’s Service Provider focus groups in Humboldt County, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego. The purposes of convening these focus groups are a) to bring local service providers together around specifically Native foster youth issues and b) to identify resources, networks, services and gaps in supporting the transition of Indian foster youth to adulthood. The focus groups are being conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco; University of California, Los Angeles, and the California Indian Child Welfare Association.
This research will not only serve the immediate interests of transition-age Indian foster youth in California, but will also serve as a data and practices resource for program planning and potential policy reform.
As of January 2009, California has at least 1465 ICWA eligible children placed outside the home of their family of origin. American Indian children represent 1.9% of the total out-of-home placements in California. Program professionals serving Indian foster youth and families in California agree that there is significant under-reporting of Indian children in the foster care system, and that the true number of Indian children in foster care is actually much higher.
According to the Child Welfare Dynamic Report System, the best available data as of January 2009, of the ICWA eligible out of home placements in California, 527 children (36%) are placed with relatives, 38 children (2.6%) are placed in non-relative Indian homes, 365 children (25.6%) are place in non-relative/non-Indian homes, 116 Indian children (7.9%) are placed in group homes, and 107 ICWA eligible children have some other placement. For 302 ICWA eligible children (20.6%) the ethnicity of the adults in the out of home placement is not known.
Humboldt County has 50 ICWA eligible children in out of home placements (out of 287 or 17.4%), 19 are placed with Indian relatives, 4 (8%) with non-relative Indian families, 4 (8%) with non-relative non-Indian families, and 23 Indian children (46%) are placed in a home where the ethnicity of the adult(s) is not known. No Indian children are identified in group home or other placements in Humboldt County.
San Francisco County has 20 ICWA eligible children reportedly in out of home placements (of 1162, or 1.2%), of these 5 Indian children (25%) are placed with relatives, 1 is placed in a non-relative Indian home, 8 (40%) are placed in non-relative non-Indian homes, 5 are in homes where the ethnicity of the adult(s) is not known, and 1 child is placed in a group home. If one adds the greater Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties), the number of ICWA eligible children in out of home placements rises to 80 with 31 children (38.75%) placed in non-relative non-Indian homes and 17 children (21.25%) placed in homes where the ethnicity of the adult(s) is unknown.
Including Solono, Sonoma and Napa counties the total number of ICWA eligible children in out of home care raises to 136 (23.2% of the additional 56 children are in non-relative non-Indian homes, and 21.4% of the additional 56 children are in homes where the ethnicity of the adult(s) is unknown. (Sonoma has 8 Indian children in group home placements.)
San Diego County has 122 ICWA eligible children in out of home placements (of 5661, or 2.2%), of these 50 children (41%) are placed with relatives, 1 is placed in a non-relative Indian home, 20 (16%) are placed in non-relative non-Indian homes, 32 children (26.2%) are placed in homes where the ethnicity of the adult(s) is not known, and 7 are placed in group homes, and 12 (9.8%) are in some other out of home placement. (Imperial County 17 of 512, 3 relative, 4 Indian, 3 non-Indian, 3 group, 4 other. Riverside County 112 of 5746, 47 relative, 4 Indian, 15 non-Indian, 36 unknown, 6 group, 4 other.)
Source: Child Welfare Dynamic Report System
Posted by CalICWA Webmaster