How do Social Workers Rank Families?
I just read an interesting post at Busy Intersection. The blogger summarizes a Minnesota study on how social workers tend to determine the desirability of families. The findings probably won't surprise anyone who has been involved in the matching process. A few excerpts from the excerpts:
Relatively "easy" Caucasian children who are five or younger usually are placed with younger heterosexual couples who appear to be part of the mainstream in terms of qualities such as personality, personal appearance, style of home, and type of religion practiced.
Finally, race appears to play a part in preferences. A home study workers said, "By law, we can look at cultural competence, but by law we can’t look at racial things." In other words, social workers cannot consider race when placing children but they do. A conventional, heterosexual African-American couple is likely to be preferred for a younger African-American or mixed race child over any other potential placement.
I wrote about some of this last year in a post on The Transracial Adoption of Children with Special Needs.
I think there are social workers out there who don't let their own biases get in the way... but the practice as a whole is definitely very biased. Although factors like race and sexual orientation get all the press, it looks like religion and "conventionality of lifestyle" are incredibly important too.
I'm not saying any of these factors shouldn't be used in matching, but on their own, they don't encompass who a family is or whether they're the best family for the child.
Parents play into this as well. High-demand couples (young, Caucasian, Christian, heterosexual, conventional, good-looking, able-bodied) soon realize they can ask for more high-demand children (infants or toddlers, female, Caucasian, fewer special needs). And social workers let low-demand singles or gay couples know they have to broaden their parameters if they want to get matched. It's heavily market-based, even though the parents aren't spending any money.
It's a subsystem that faithfully reflects the larger system: our messed-up world.
Foster Care System Perspectives
2 comments:
It's absolutely true. I'll never forget when I read a profile of a young, cute, little white girl whose foster parents were a lesbian couple. It stated right in the profile that the girl was doing very well there so they moved her into a "more traditional" home to see how she would do. She didn't do well (not surprisingly) and they moved her back. I was appalled.
I was shocked when I was selected for a beautiful 4-year old boy with few issues. I couldn't believe it. Then I learned about the severe issues his older brother had (who I would have brought home after he completed treatment in a residential facility). Then I knew why I was being considered for the little one. (It breaks my heart to even write about them. When I was matched with Slugger I couldn't continue with the brothers. They were ultimately separated because the SW couldn't find another home willing to take both of them. It's so sad!)
I've tried writing this comment 3 times but they are so darn long I end up deleting them. Let me try again.
I saw many Social Workers make decisions based on their own personal biases (2 parent home, heterosexuals, religious, white, black, etc.). For example, I know that we were passed by at one point because we are Agnostics and the Social Worker had an issue w/ that and wanted a Christian home (found out later the truth).
Although our daughter was supposed to be a temporary placement the social worker wanted her in a "good Black home" and was upset she had been placed with us (Hispanic). Although I do understand her concerns (and actually agree w/ some of them) this wasn't her decision to make.
I found most of them to be inexperienced, lacking practical knowledge of children (theories are great until you are dealing w/ the theoretical problems and then overly simplistic resolutions don't work...when they don't work then the'd be stumped and couldn't think outside the box), overwhelmed, underpayed, ignorant of their job's requirements and quite frankly many would let their power get to their heads and wouldn't LISTEN so couple all that w/ making decisions based on their own personal biases. I realize they are dealing with a lot of stress but it was scary seeing how many would quit after a few months or a couple of years or move from agency to agency...it was like a revolving door and this is hard on everyone. A foster daughter I had went through about 15 social workers (no joke...15!!) and many never learned to be impartial. Not to say there weren't some really good ones...but they were the minority.
Anyway...there is a lot that can be done to make sure there is more accountability but the system itself is flawed.
I'm sure I'll be on the other side complaining once I get my Masters in Social Work (in a couple of years)!LOL
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