Child Welfare System

The Child Welfare System

This section presents literature and evidence on anti-Black racism within the Canadian child welfare system, emphasizing its implications for Black children and families.

Research articles

Adjei, P. B., Mullings, D., Baffoe, M., Quaicoe, L., Abdul-Rahman, L., Shears, V., & Fitzgerald, S. (2018). The “Fragility of Goodness”: Black Parents’ Perspective about Raising Children in Toronto, Winnipeg, and St. John’s of Canada. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 12(4), 461–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2017.1401575

Adjei, Paul Banahene, and Eric Minka. “Black Parents Ask for a Second Look: Parenting under ‘White’ Child Protection Rules in Canada.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 94, 2018, pp. 511–24, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.08.030.

Akuoko-Barfi, C., McDermott, T., Parada, H., & Edwards, T. (2021). “We Were in White Homes as Black Children:” Caribbean Youth’s Stories of Out-of-home Care in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 32(3), 212–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428232.2021.1931649

Akuoko-Barfi, C., Parada, H., Gonzalez Perez, L., & Rampersaud, M. (2023). “It’s not a system that’s built for me”: Black youths’ unbelonging in Ontario schools. The Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, 45(5), 458–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2023.2240686

Alaazi, D. A., Salami, B., Yohani, S., Vallianatos, H., Okeke-Ihejirika, P., & Nsaliwa, C. (2018). Transnationalism, parenting, and child disciplinary practices of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada. Child Abuse & Neglect, 86, 147–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.09.013

Antwi-Boasiako, K., Fallon, B., King, B., Trocmé, N., & Fluke, J. (2022a). Understanding the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario’s child welfare system: Perspectives from child welfare workers and community service providers. Child Abuse & Neglect, 123, 105425-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105425

Antwi-Boasiako, K., Fallon, B., King, B., Trocmé, N., & Fluke, J. (2022b). Addressing the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario’s child welfare system: insights from child welfare workers and community service providers. Child Abuse & Neglect, 123, 105423-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105423

Antwi-Boasiako, K., Fallon, B., King, B., Trocmé, N., & Fluke, J. (2021). Examining decision-making tools and child welfare involvement among Black families in Ontario, Canada. Children and Youth Services Review, 126, 106048-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106048

Antwi-Boasiako, K., King, B., Black, T., Fallon, B., Trocmé, N., & Goodman, D. (2016). Ethno-racial Categories and Child Welfare Decisions: Exploring the Relationship with Poverty. CWRP Information Sheet #178E. Toronto, ON: Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal. https://cwrp.ca/sites/default/files/publications/178e.pdf

Antwi-Boasiako, K., King, B., Fallon, B., Trocmé, N., Fluke, J., Chabot, M., & Esposito, T. (2020). Differences and disparities over time: Black and White families investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect, 107, 104618–104618. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104618

Boatswain-Kyte, A., Esposito, T., & Trocmé, N. (2022). Impacts of race on family reunification: A longitudinal study comparing exits from Quebec’s child welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect, 125, 105483–105483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105483

Boatswain-Kyte, A., Esposito, T., Trocmé, N., & Boatswain-Kyte, A. (2020). A longitudinal jurisdictional study of Black children reported to child protection services in Quebec, Canada. Children and Youth Services Review, 116, 105219-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105219

Boatswain-Kyte, A., Hélie, S., & Royer, M.-N. (2024). A critical examination of youth service trajectories: Black children’s transition from child welfare to youth justice. Children and Youth Services Review, 157, 107411-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107411

Cénat, J. M., Noorishad, P.-G., Czechowski, K., McIntee, S.-E., & Mukunzi, J. N. (2020). Racial disparities in child welfare in Ontario (Canada) and training on ethnocultural diversity: An innovative mixed-methods study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 108, 104659–104659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104659

Cénat, J. M., Noorishad, P.-G., Farahi Moshirian, S. M. M., Darius, W. P., & Flynn, R. J. (2023). Reasons for admission to service and overrepresentation of Black youth in the child welfare system in Ontario, Canada: Does race matter? Child Abuse & Neglect, 140, 106157–106157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106157

Clarke, J. (2011). The challenges of child welfare involvement for Afro-Caribbean families in Toronto. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(2), 274–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.09.010

Clarke, J. (2012). Beyond Child Protection: Afro-Caribbean Service Users of Child Welfare. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 23(3), 223–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428232.2012.719119

Debrosse, R., Boatswain‐Kyte, A., David, S., Gooding, G., Vaval, P., & Lafortune, G. (2024). No identity connections without representation? Exploring associations between neighbourhood opportunities, ethnic–ideal alignment and well‐being in Black, Indigenous and other youths of colour in Canada. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 34(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2777

Drake, B., Lee, S. M., & Jonson-Reid, M. (2009). Race and child maltreatment reporting: Are Blacks overrepresented? Children and youth services review, 31(3), 309-316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2008.08.004

Drake, B., Jolley, J. M., Lanier, P., Fluke, J., Barth, R. P., & Jonson-Reid, M. (2011). Racial bias in child protection? A comparison of competing explanations using national data. Pediatrics, 127(3), 471-478. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-1710

Edwards, T., Brisbane, M., Laylor, A., Chowdhury, R., Parada, H., & King, B. (2023). “I wasn’t Enrolled”: Exploring the Educational Narratives of Black Caribbean Youth Navigating Out-of-Home Care in Ontario’s Child Welfare System. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-023-00955-8

Edwards, T., Chowdhury, R., Laylor, A., Parada, H., & King, B. (2024). Pushed, Dropped, or Fleeing from Care: The Narratives and Adultification of Black Youth Who Have Aged out of Ontario’s Child Welfare System. Child & Youth Services, 45(3), 371–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2023.2173565

Edwards, T., King, B., Risidore, J., & Parada, H. (2022). Many households but never a home: stories of resistance from Black youth navigating placement instability in Ontario’s child welfare system. Journal of Youth Studies, 26(9), 1219–1239. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2080539

Goddard-Durant, S. K., Doucet, A., Tizaa, H., & Sieunarine, J. A. (2023). “I don’t have the energy”: Racial stress, young Black motherhood, and Canadian social policies. Canadian Review of Sociology, 60(4), 542–566. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12457

King, B., Fallon, B., Boyd, R., Black, T., Antwi-Boasiako, K., & O’Connor, C. (2017). Factors associated with racial differences in child welfare investigative decision-making in Ontario, Canada. Child Abuse & Neglect, 73, 89–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.027

Lavergne, C., Dufour, S., Trocmé, N., & Larrivée, M.-C. (2008). Visible Minority, Aboriginal, and Caucasian Children Investigated by Canadian Protective Services. Child Welfare, 87(2), 59–76. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18972932/

Millar, P. (2010). Punishing our way out of poverty: The prosecution of child-support debt in Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Law and Society/La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 25(2), 149-165. https://doi.org/10.1017/S082932010001036X

McIntosh, I. E. (2016). Improving Child Welfare: African Canadian Youth’s Postcare Options. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3557&context=dissertations

Mulatris, P., & Liboy, M. G. (2020). Autour de la diversité des orientations sexuelles: regard croisé Afrique-Canada parmi les jeunes francophones issus de l’immigration africaine subsaharienne. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 52(1), 73-93. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/78/article/753539/pdf

Noorishad, P.-G., Paul Darius, W., Czechowski, K., McIntee, S.-E., Ntunga Mukunzi, J., & Mary Cénat, J. (2023). Racism as a vehicle for the overrepresentation of Black youth in child protection services in Ontario, Canada: Caseworkers’ and community facilitators’ perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 149, 106963-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106963

Phillips, D., & Pon, G. (2018). Anti-black racism, bio-power, and governmentality: Deconstructing the suffering of black families involved with child welfare. JL & Soc. Pol’y, 28, 81. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/jlsp28&id=81&men_tab=srchresults

Pon, G., Gosine, K., & Phillips, D. (2011). Immediate response: Addressing anti-Native and anti-Black racism in child welfare. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 2(3/4), 385-409. https://doi.org/10.18357/ijcyfs23/420117763

Putnam-Hornstein, E., Needell, B., King, B., & Johnson-Motoyama, M. (2013). Racial and ethnic disparities: A population-based examination of risk factors for involvement with child protective services. Child abuse & neglect, 37(1), 33-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.08.005

Tourigny, M., & Bouchard, C. (1994). Incidence and characteristics in identification of abused children: Cross-cultural comparison. Child Abuse & Neglect, 18(10), 797-808. DOI: 10.1016/0145-2134(94)90059-0

Reports

Black Youth Action Plan. (2021). Supporting Black children and families in the child welfare system: A report on systemic discrimination. Black Youth Action Plan. Retrieved from https://www.byp.org

Canadian Human Rights Commission. (2020). Racial disparities in Canadian child welfare: Black children and youth in care. Canadian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca

Ontario Child Advocacy Project. (2020). Barriers and overrepresentation: Black children in the Ontario child welfare system. Ontario Child Advocacy Project. Retrieved from https://www.ocap.ca

Ontario Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services. (2019). Addressing the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario’s child welfare system. Ontario Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services. Retrieved from https://www.children.gov.on.ca

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. (2020). Examining the experiences of Black families in Canada’s child welfare system. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved from https://www.policyalternatives.ca

The Ontario Child Advocate. (2018). Barriers to justice for Black children in the child welfare system. Ontario Child Advocate. Retrieved from https://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/ocadocs.aspx

Videos

Transforming Ontario’s Child Welfare System to Improve Outcomes for Youth and Their Families: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb2b0a1MEQ

All In: African Canadian Child Welfare Symposium: https://youtu.be/4Uf5ZUeBg-4

Why Ontario’s Child Welfare System Needs Change: https://youtu.be/ENmRoN9Dg_4

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