REPORT

Interrupted childhoods Over-representation of Indigenous and Black children in Ontario child welfare

REPORT

Interrupted childhoods Over-representation of Indigenous and Black children in Ontario child welfare

Ontario Human Rights Commission ISBN: 978-1-4868-1115-1 (Print) 978-1-4868-1116-8 (HTML) 978-1-4868-1117-5 (PDF) February 2018 Available in various formats on request Also available online: www.ohrc.on.ca Disponible en français

Interrupted childhoods

Contents Summary and key findings ............................................................................................ 2 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6 2. Why is collecting race-based data important? ................................................. 13 3. CASs and child welfare legislation ....................................................................... 15 4. Research on racial disproportionality in child welfare ................................... 16 4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5.

Indigenous children ........................................................................................... 17 Black children...................................................................................................... 21 Factors that may lead to discrimination .......................................................... 24 Impacts of being taken into care ...................................................................... 27 Human rights-based data collection in the child welfare system ................. 29

5. Results ....................................................................................................................... 31 5.1. CASs’ data collection practices ............................................................................. 32 5.1.1. Data collection policies, protocols, forms, systems and training ............... 32 5.1.2. Data collection practices ................................................................................ 34 5.2. Admissions into care ............................................................................................. 36 6. Organization and community responses ........................................................... 41 6.1. Responses from children’s aid societies to the OHRC’s data request and inquiry results ................................................................................................. 41 6.2. Responses from communities and organizations.............................................. 42 7. Discussion ................................................................................................................. 44 7.1. Data collection practices ....................................................................................... 44 7.2. Racial disproportionality in admissions into care .............................................. 46 8. Recommendations and commitments ............................................................... 50 Appendix A: Detailed methodology ............................................................................... 57 Appendix B: Glossary ....................................................................................................... 63 Appendix C: Acknowledgements .................................................................................... 66 Appendix D: Letter to Minister Philpott ......................................................................... 67

___________________________________ Ontario Human Rights Commission 1

Interrupted childhoods

Summary and key findings For decades, Indigenous, Black and other racialized families and communities have raised the alarm that their children are over-represented in the child welfare system. Although Indigenous and racialized children’s pathways through the system are quite different, Ontario-based research shows that racial disparities – that is, d