The absence of language: A critical race discourse analysis of Ontario's child welfare legislation and the impacts on Black families.

Background: The research pertaining to racial disparities for Black families in child welfare is relatively limited in Canada. Recent research reveals that the overrepresentation of Black families in Canadian child welfare systems typically begins at the reporting or investigation stage and continues throughout the child welfare service and decision-making continuum. This research is occurring against the backdrop of increasing public acknowledgement of Canada's historic anti-Black policy-making and institutional relationships to Black communities.

Understanding the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario's child welfare system: Perspectives from child welfare workers and community service providers.

Background: The overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system is a social problem that has received longstanding attention in the United States, but has recently received increasing attention in Canada.

Objective: This qualitative study explores the findings of two quantitative studies (Antwi-Boasiako et al., 2020, 2021) in order to interpret them through the perspectives of child welfare workers and community service providers.

Addressing the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario's child welfare system: insights from child welfare workers and community service providers.

Background: The overrepresentation Black children experience in the child welfare system is well documented in the United States, but such studies are now emerging in Canada. In Ontario, there are few studies that address this issue concerning Black families.

Objective: This study is to explore the insights of child welfare workers and community service providers on how to potentially address Black children's overrepresentation in Ontario's child welfare system.

Recurrent involvement with the Quebec child protection system for reasons of neglect: A longitudinal clinical population study.

Unlabelled: Studies in several jurisdictions have found that families become recurrently involved with child protection systems most frequently for reasons of neglect. Child protection involvement for reasons of neglect is shown to correlate with various socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Objective: This study, the largest of its kind in Canada, examines when and for whom recurring conditions of neglect were most likely to occur for all children involved with child protection in the province of Quebec over a span of fifteen years.

Differences and disparities over time: Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system.

Background: Black-White disparities in child welfare involvement have been well-documented in the United States, but there is a significant knowledge gap in Ontario about how and when these disparities emerge.

Objective: This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system over a 20-year period.

Methods: Data from the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993-2013) were used to examine trends in child maltreatment investigations involving Black and White families.

Early Childbirth Among Foster Youth: A Latent Class Analysis to Determine Subgroups at Increased Risk.

Context: Research has documented elevated rates of early childbirth among adolescents who have spent time in foster care, and a better understanding is needed of the characteristics of vulnerable individuals and the circumstances of their time in care.

Methods: California birth records for 1999-2010 were probabilistically linked to state child welfare service records spanning the same date range to identify females aged 12-19 who had spent time in foster care and had had a first birth before age 20. Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups based on age at most recent entry into care, length of this stay and three indicators of placement instability.

Factors associated with racial differences in child welfare investigative decision-making in Ontario, Canada.

Despite the substantial body of literature on racial disparities in child welfare involvement in the Unites States, there is relatively little research on such differences for Canadian children and families. This study begins to address this gap by examining decision-making among workers investigating Black and White families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario, Canada. Using provincially representative data, the study assessed whether Black children were more likely than White children to be investigated by child welfare, if there was disparate decision-making by race throughout the investigation, and how the characteristics of Black and White children contribute to the decision to transfer to ongoing services.

Predictors of Early Childbirth Among Female Adolescents in Foster Care.

Purpose: Placement into foster care is driven by a number of factors, many of which are associated with adolescent childbirth. Yet, there are few studies that identify the experiences and characteristics that predict adolescent childbirth among girls who spend time in foster care.

Methods: A longitudinal, population-based data set was constructed by probabilistically matching California child protective service records for female foster youth to maternal information available on vital birth records for children born between 2001 and 2010.

First Births to Maltreated Adolescent Girls: Differences Associated With Spending Time in Foster Care.

Few studies have examined early parenting among girls receiving child welfare services (CWS) or disentangled the relationship between maltreatment, spending time in foster care, and adolescent childbirth. Using population-based, linked administrative data, this study calculated birth rates among maltreated adolescent girls and assessed differences in birth rates associated with spending time in foster care. Of the 85,766 girls with substantiated allegations of maltreatment during adolescence, nearly 18% subsequently gave birth.

A population-level and longitudinal study of adolescent mothers and intergenerational maltreatment.

For teenage mothers in California, we generated population-level estimates of the relationship between maternal history of maltreatment and next-generation abuse and neglect. California birth records for all infants born to primiparous teen mothers in 2006 or 2007 were linked to statewide child protective services (CPS) records. For each birth, we used CPS records to document 1) whether the teen mother had a history of reported or substantiated maternal maltreatment at or after age 10 years and before the estimated date of conception and 2) whether the teen's child was reported or substantiated for maltreatment before age 5 years.

Building Analytic Capacity and Statistical Literacy Among Title IV-E MSW Students.

Building and sustaining effective child welfare practice requires an infrastructure of social work professionals trained to use data to identify target populations, connect interventions to outcomes, adapt practice to varying contexts and dynamic populations, and assess their own effectiveness. Increasingly, public agencies are implementing models of self-assessment in which administrative data are used to guide and continuously evaluate the implementation of programs and policies. The research curriculum described in the article was developed to provide Title IV-E and other students interested in public child welfare systems with hands-on opportunities to become experienced and "statistically literate" users of aggregated public child welfare data from California's administrative child welfare system, attending to the often missing link between data/research and practice improvement.

Cumulative teen birth rates among girls in foster care at age 17: an analysis of linked birth and child protection records from California.

This study used linked foster care and birth records to provide a longitudinal, population-level examination of the incidence of first and repeat births among girls who were in foster care at age 17. Girls in a foster care placement in California at the age of 17 between 2003 and 2007 were identified from statewide child protection records. These records were probabilistically matched to vital birth records spanning the period from 2001 to 2010.

Examining the evidence: reporter identity, allegation type, and sociodemographic characteristics as predictors of maltreatment substantiation.

Using linked administrative data from child protection and birth records in California, this study examined whether the mandated status and type of reporter are independent predictors of substantiation among infants and young children across maltreatment types and after adjusting for characteristics of the child and family. Of the 59,413 children born in 2002 who were reported and investigated for maltreatment before the age of 5 years, 26% were substantiated. Reports originating from mandated sources were 2.

A population-based examination of maltreatment history among adolescent mothers in California.

Purpose: To document the abuse and neglect histories of adolescent mothers using official child protection records.

Methods: Vital birth records were used to identify adolescents 12-19 years of age who were born in California and gave birth in 2009. These records were linked to statewide child protective service data to determine maternal history of alleged and substantiated maltreatment victimization, as well as placement in foster care.

Infant birth weight and maltreatment of adolescent mothers.

Background: Emerging literature suggests that maternal exposure to stress and adversity throughout the life course may have health consequences for offspring.

Purpose: To examine the maltreatment history of adolescent mothers as an independent predictor of infant birth weight.

Methods: Birth records for all infants born between 2007 and 2009 to mothers aged 12-19 years were extracted from California's vital statistics files.

Racial and ethnic disparities: a population-based examination of risk factors for involvement with child protective services.

Objective: Data from the United States indicate pronounced and persistent racial/ethnic differences in the rates at which children are referred and substantiated as victims of child abuse and neglect. In this study, we examined the extent to which aggregate racial differences are attributable to variations in the distribution of individual and family-level risk factors.

Methods: This study was based on the full population of children born in California in 2002.

A field experiment in capitated payment systems and recovery management: the women's recovery association pilot study.

Against the backdrop of shifting perspectives regarding substance abuse policy, upcoming changes to the health care system, and progress toward parity for mental health and substance abuse treatment, an exploratory pilot study is being conducted in San Mateo County, California, to assess the potential of a capitated case rate combined with a recovery management approach in a community-based substance abuse treatment program for women. The rationale for developing the approach, planning, and implementation of the pilot project, the struggle of the agency to transform from episodic treatment to a chronic care model, and a case study that highlights organizational changes are discussed. Lessons learned and implications for the second year of the pilot project are also discussed.