Do you serve dads who are involved with your state’s child welfare agency?
If so, you undoubtedly know about the struggle many dads have in navigating that agency effectively. Dads get lost in understanding how to engage with that agency to prevent losing their children or reuniting with them after a forced separation.
The Struggle is Real
The primary reason for this struggle is the lack of proactive inclusion of dads by child welfare agencies. Indeed, a comprehensive review of state child welfare agencies revealed that:
- Many of their data systems make it difficult to measure whether and how child welfare agencies engage dads and paternal relatives.
- Caseworkers were more likely to make concerted efforts to identify, locate, inform and evaluate moms and maternal relatives than dads and paternal relatives.
- Caseworkers were more likely to involve children and moms in case planning than dads.
- Caseworkers were more likely to encourage moms to participate in their children’s school activities, medical appointments, and after-school programs.
- Caseworkers were more likely to have sufficient frequency and quality of visits with moms than dads.
Moreover, this lack of proactive inclusion is particularly pronounced when it comes to dads of color. In a study of caseworkers in four states who collectively worked with more than 1,700 children, researchers identified racial-ethnic patterns in initial casework activity with non-resident dads. They found the following factors explained these patterns:
- Agencies were less likely to identify nonresident dads of Black, Latinx, and Multiracial children relative to those of White children.
- Among dads whom agencies identified, Black and Latinx dads were less likely to be located.
- Among dads whom agencies located, Black and Latinx dads were less likely to be contacted. Whereas greater rates of international mobility among Latinx dads explained agencies’ disproportionately low rates of contact, no other factor explained racial-ethnic differentials in contact.