Minnesota has put more Native American children in foster care than any other state in the nation. Despite being one of the least-represented minorities in Minnesota, nearly one in every 10 Native children is in the foster system, compared to only one in every 100 white children.
One of key individuals who has spearheaded research into this issue is Professor Priscilla Day, director of the Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Day has focused on social work and American Indian families for a great deal of her career, and aside from her role at the University, she also writes and trains for the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS).
“It’s complicated,” said Day, who had just returned from a national meeting on American Indian child welfare practices. “Part of the issue is ineffective training and bias of workers, but it’s also how the system is set up to get the results it does.
Read the whole article published in the University of Minnesota's The Wake student magazine.
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