Abstract
This article argues that the U.S. child welfare system is a primary institution of racialized and gendered poverty governance, operating at the nexus of the assistive and punitive arms of the state. With attention to the ways race and gender structure the child welfare system, I apply the concept of neoliberal paternalism to examine state efforts to reform “bad” parents into “good neoliberal citizen-parents.” I highlight the increasingly decentralized and privatized child welfare workforce and its effects on governance. Finally, I explore the contradictions around expectations of “self-sufficiency.”
In order to understand what factors drive child welfare policymaking, this research analyzes data on spending and legislation from the U.S. states over a three-year period. The key independent variables are scandal, litigation, federal oversight, and local discretion. While states that experience a scandal or a lawsuit do not increase their spending levels over previous years, they do enact more child welfare legislation. This raises the possibility that states engage in symbolic rather than substantive responses to child welfare crises. The administrative structure of the child welfare system also affects state policymaking.
Prevalence of children with disabilities in the child welfare system and out of home placement: An examination of administrative records