First National-Level Study Looks at Foster Care and Native Children

by Allison Dunnigan, Associate Professor and Title IV-E Coordinator

For decades, social work researchers have worked to understand the risk factors for child maltreatment, and identify promising ways to prevent child abuse and heal the harms it causes. While we know a great on the level of individual clients, we know much less about how policies affect children and families in the child welfare system. We know even less about whether these impacts are differential based on race/ ethnicity, age, or other factors.

Dr. Allison Dunnigan has been researching this specific question. She has studied policies such as privatized foster care, looking at how it may be connected to increased time in foster care. She has also examined how state and federal substance use laws in response to the opioid epidemic may be associated with increased infant entry into foster care.

Most recently, Dunnigan has been looking at how implementing State legislation codifying the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act is connected to native/indigenous children’s entry in foster care. The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed in 1978, in part due to the abuses experienced by native and indigenous children and families at the hands of the child welfare system.

States have taken different approaches to ICWA. Eight states (as of 1/2021) have passed legislation that codifies protections and practices of ICWA in state laws. These State ICWA laws are the subject of Dunnigan’s recent research, done in collaboration with Dr. Claudette Grinnell-Davis, a colleague from the University of Oklahoma. It is the first study to use national-level data to explore the impact of State ICWA, and to study the differences between native and non-native youth in foster care.

Dunnigan’s initial results show that there are significant differences between native/ indigenous youth in foster care when compared to all other racial/ethnic groups. Native/indigenous youth are younger on average compared to non-native youth who enter foster care (6.2 years vs 7.2 years) and are less likely to have a permanency plan established (16.3% without a plan vs 11.1%.) This is important, since having a permanency plan is connected to many factors including length of time in foster care, number of placements, and ultimately the permanency achieved. Dunnigan also found that native/ indigenous youth were more likely to enter foster care in states with a State ICWA law.

Looking forward , Dunnigan says she plans to continue to explore how policies are driving outcomes for child welfare-involved families. But Dunnigan is the first to admit this is a big undertaking. “The research team of MSW and PhD students at the School of Social Work are invaluable to these efforts” she said “as are the collaborations with Georgia Department of Family and Children Services through Title IV-E and National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) training programs.” Working together, Dunnigan and her collaborators hope to identify policies that work for all children who are in foster care.