Minnesota Lawmakers Propose African American Family Preservation Act to Address Disparities in Child Welfare System
Eight-month-old Zhakari looked overly sleepy when his mom DeClara Tripp picked him up from his nursing pillow and noticed he was struggling to breathe.
Tripp recounted recently how she quickly began efforts to get air into his lungs in 2015 and called paramedics for help.
They were rushed to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul and a doctor diagnosed Zhakari with a brain bleed. He was taken into surgery. Tripp was alerted that investigators might come asking about potential neglect.
For many more Black families than their white peers, that alone can quickly spiral into removal of the child from their home.
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The African American Family Preservation Act: Addressing Disparities in Child Welfare System
Minnesota lawmakers could shake up the system this year to head off out-of-home placements that can cause trauma or otherwise disrupt the family dynamic, under a proposal they’re calling the African American Family Preservation Act. Caseworkers say while the goal is worthy, they are concerned about their ability to carry it out without adequate funding, staff, and direction.
In Tripp’s case, it took four years to regain custody and to clear her name after child welfare investigators removed her infant son.
Zhakari smiles for a photo. “After fighting for four years, his name was changed to Zach, they cut his hair, they provided a medication that I’m totally against,” DeClara Tripp, his mother, said. “There were things that, you know, culturally, I did not want done to my son.”
Courtesy photo
But she said that wasn’t her last fight.
“This is about justice,” she said. “It’s important to push this bill for the African American families, to strengthen them, but also for the other areas where there’s disparities that exist.”
Now, almost nine years after the investigation, Tripp is joining with other families affected by the child welfare system, civil rights groups, and advocates to press for extra safeguards to keep Black kids in their communities.
A working group study last year found that African American kids make up nine percent of the population but 18 percent of children in need of protection or services cases. That number was even greater — 27 percent — for out-of-home placements and delinquency cases.
Despite efforts by state and local officials to address the outsized representation of African American families in the child protection system, rates haven’t budged in nearly three decades.
“Disparities for African American families exist at every decision point of the child protection process. We are over-reported at three times the rate of our white counterparts,” said Kelis Houston, chair of the Minneapolis NAACP’s Child Protection Committee and founder of Village Arms, a group that works to keep African American families together.
The local NAACP chapter has called on the federal government to investigate Minnesota’s child welfare system given the consistent disparities. It has also advocated for the change in state law.
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