I just got the okay to share this info with you from The Connection, the publication of the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association. And since last month was black history month, I want to tell you about a wonderful author, Dorothy E. Roberts.

Dorothy Roberts is a professor of law and research fellow at Northwestern University. She has written several books, one of which is "Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare," that she wrote in 2003. The book chronicles the existence and disproportionate number of African-American children in the US foster care system.

She says that the child welfare system is destroying black families and culture, by state intervention and removal of black children from their families.

Here are a few statistics from Shattered Bonds:

• African-American families are three times as likely as Caucasian families to be poor. By the age of six, 57% of Black children will experience at least one year of life below the poverty line as compared with 15% of White children.


• Black children make up 42% of the foster care population but only 17% of the nation's children.
  


• African-American children involved with child protective services are twice as likely as Caucasian children to be separated from their parents, and to linger in state custody.


• A national study by the US Department of Health and Human Services reports that minority children and in particular African-American children, are more likely to be in foster care placement than receive at-home services, even when they have the same problems and characteristics as White children.


• The rate of child poverty in the US is many times greater than in European countries. And the poorest children in this country are much worse off than their European counterparts.


• Data on the foster care system over the past 20 years show that the number of parental rights terminations far outpaces the number of adoptions.


• Black parents' rights are terminated sooner than those of White parents, yet Black children are less likely than White children to be adopted.

The CEO of the National CASA Association has this to say about Dorothy Roberts:

"For those of us dealing with children already in the care of the state, Dorothy Roberts' work can open our eyes to a more sympathetic understanding of the situation for parents of African-American children. And that can help reorient our advocacy to enable more of those children to return safely home."

Dorothy Roberts will be a feature speaker at the upcoming 25th National CASA annual conference, April 1-4, 2006 in San Diego, CA.

(The above is adapted with permission from an article by Tracy Bier in the Connection).

In memory of Mojo, who passed away about an hour ago. We will miss you Mojo, as will your little bird wife, Sugar.