“I wasn’t Enrolled”: Exploring the Educational Narratives of Black Caribbean Youth Navigating Out-of-Home Care in Ontario’s Child Welfare System

“It’s Not a System of Care”: Black Youth’s Stories of Family Separation and Anti-Black Racism in Ontario’s Child Welfare System

“…Black families have described how navigating the child welfare system can at times be traumatizing and unhelpful, leading them to question the necessity of OOHC as an intervention (Clarke, 2011;Taussig & Munson, 2022). For example, Black youth in OOHC reported experiencing placement and worker instability, instances of cultural loss, barriers to connecting with their biological families and communities, obstructions to their educational participation, as well as a lack of support that often extended to their transition from OOHC (Akuoko-Barfi et al, 2021;Edwards, Brisbane, et al, 2023;Taussig & Munson, 2022).…”

“…Once investigated, these racial disparities continued for Black youth across the child welfare continuum as they were 16% more likely to be substantiated for child maltreatment, 15% more likely to be placed in OOHC during the investigation stage, but 21% less likely to be transferred to ongoing services (Bonnie et al, 2022). Although only 3% of Black children and youth in Ontario are placed in OOHC (Bonnie et al, 2022), research exploring their experiences and outcomes has unveiled concerns about anti-Black racism in the form of unjust scrutiny, pathologizing, oversurveillance, criminalization, and the invalidation of Black caregivers' ability to parent (Edwards, Brisbane, et al, 2023;Mohamud et al, 2021). Anti-Black racism not only impacts the caregivers', but also has lasting impacts for Black youth who are taken into state care as it limits contact with their biological families which is associated with longer stays in OOHC (McWey & Cui, 2021).…”