Contra Costa County

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Contra Costa County

• Disproportionality Examples and Changes

Ray Merritt Dorothy Powell Children and Family
Services Research and Evaluation
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General County Information

• Contra Costa County
• Over 1,000,000 in population with 26 under 18
  years old
• 9th most populous county in state
• We divide County into 3 geographic areas
• Growing at over 1/year County-wide
• Some areas in East County growing at over 12/year

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Child Population Increased over 20,000 since 1998
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Ethnicity and Population
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Child Population Trends

• Number of Hispanic youth under age 18 likely to
  surpass that of White youth sometime around 2014

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Disproportionality and Disparity

• Disproportionality
• The overrepresentation of a particular group
  (typically referring to ethnicity) in any given
  area (e.g., Child Welfare System) compared to
  their proportion in the population (e.g., African
  Americans 11 of the youth population, but make
  up 49 of the youth in Foster Care)
• Disparity
• The comparison of one group to another (e.g.,
  likelihood of a Black youth, compared to a White
  youth in being referred to CFS)

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Disproportionality Example
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Referral Information

• There is disproportionality throughout the Child
  Welfare System
• Referral Incidence Rates (2005)
• Black 85.7/1000
• White 34.4/1000
• Hispanic 28.3/1000
• Substantiated Referral Incidence Rates (2005)
• Black 16.6/1000 (19.4 of referrals
  substantiated)
• White 6.9/1000 (20.2 of referrals
  substantiated)
• Hispanic 6.6/1000 (23.2 of referrals
  substantiated)

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Racial Disparity

• When we examine the disparity between Whites and
  Blacks for 2005, we see that
• Referrals Blacks have a 2.5 times higher
  incidence rate
• Substantiations Blacks have a 2.4 times higher
  incidence rate
• First Entries to Care Blacks have a 2.9 times
  higher incidence rate
• In Child Welfare Supervised Foster Care on 1 July
  2005 Blacks have a 5.3 times higher incidence
  rate

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First Entry to Care
Start work on disparity
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In Care Incidence Rates
Start work on disparity
Similar to first entries into care, the rates
for Black youth in care are decreasing
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All Ethnicities Show Decreases in Time in
Placement Point-in-Time

• While all ethnicities show decreased length of
  average time in placement, there is still
  disparity
• Black youth have longer time in placement than
  youth of other ethnicities

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Decreases in Average Time in Placement
Point-in-Time

• Comparing July 1st 2001 to July 1st 2006
• Black Youth (2006 n892, 49.6)
• Average time in placement decreased 3 years (40)
• Native American Youth (2006 n14, 0.8)
• Average time in placement decreased 2.8 years
  (46)
• Hispanic Youth (2006 n254, 14.1)
• Average time in placement decreased 2.3 years
  (46)
• Asian Youth (2006 n47, 2.6)
• Average time in placement decreased 2 years (44)
• White Youth (2006 n592, 32.9)
• Average time in placement decreased 1.6 years
  (34)

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Ethnicity Differences

• Thus, comparing children of different ethnicities
  within the Child Welfare System
• Black children have a higher likelihood of a
  referral
• Blacks and Whites have referrals substantiated at
  about the same percentage (20) while Asian and
  Hispanics have slightly higher rates (around 24)
• Black children are more likely to be removed from
  home and enter child welfare supervised Foster
  Care
• Black children are likely to stay in care for a
  longer period of time than children of other
  ethnicities

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Target Area Changes

• Since inception in 2002/2003
• Changes in target area (Richmond defined by zip
  codes) and target population (Black children
  under age 5)

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Questions?

• Contra Costa County - 2006

Children and Family Services Research and
Evaluation