Jessica Pryce: To transform child welfare, take race out of the equation
Jessica Pryce creates strategies to reduce the impact of racial bias in child protective services. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
a Child Protective Services worker.
to a report of child abuse.
unexpected, certainly uninvited.
in the middle of the room, on the floor.
with a couple of ashtrays,
the kids lie asleep.
through the entire home.
where there's very little food.
in the bedroom, on the floor,
with her infant child.
two things may happen.
and removed from the home,
for a specified period of time.
provides help and support.
Protective Services worker,
yourself in that home,
your opinion of that family?
did you think the family was?
that if those children were white,
stays together after that visit.
the University of Pennsylvania
have access to more help and more support
to go through a full investigation.
if those kids are black,
more likely to be removed,
of time in foster care,
a stable foster placement.
an immediate shelter of protection
and traumatic exit from the family.
the University of Minnesota
who went through foster care
and internalized issues
while receiving help and support.
is not uncommon.
living in low-income housing
almost impossible to keep food,
to have her children taken from her?
a family court attorney,
in a poor neighborhood,
often unreachable standards
with very little money.
their kids are removed.
on the front lines of child welfare,
how my personal values impacted my work.
at Florida State University,
and effective child welfare research.
twice as many black kids in foster care,
population, 14 percent.
several reasons why,
something you're not aware of.
about certain groups of people.
in the background
that I want to share.
going into foster care.
the number of black kids being removed.
into that community with my team
of blind removal meetings.
to a report of child abuse.
must come back to the office
neighborhood, race,
family strength, relevant history
to protect the child.
the committee makes a recommendation,
a drastic impact in that community.
going into foster care were black.
that is down to 21 percent.
from talking to some of the case workers.
with the department,
to do things differently."
apartment building,
because it's an emotional field.
emotions around this work.
all of your stuff at the door
of race and neighborhood out of it,
bringing us closer
in foster-care decisions.
and machine learning
to other states.
of their employees.
are driven by ethics and safety.
that focuses on partnering with parents,
instead of pulling them apart.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jessica Pryce - Child advocate, social scientistJessica Pryce creates strategies to reduce the impact of racial bias in child protective services.
Why you should listen
Jessica Pryce curates child welfare research that focuses on answering legislative questions and informing social policy. She has conducted research at the state and national level while publishing and presenting her work nationally and internationally. Her research has focused on the training and education of the workforce, racial disparity in child welfare decisions, and the disproportionality in our country's foster care system. Pryce is executive director of a research center at Florida State University
After earning her PhD at Howard University and working in New York state for two years, Pryce was appointed in 2016 the new Executive Director of the Florida Institute for Child Welfare, where she mobilizes social scientists devoted to improving the intractable issues that have negatively impacted the lives of vulnerable children and their families. She is currently engaged in a multi-year project focused on illuminating the experiences of black parents as they matriculate through child protective services. That same year, Pryce published an article illuminating strategies for the promotion of racial equity in a community on Long Island, NY.
In 2018, she was selected as a TED Resident. During the residency, she worked to disseminate strategies to child welfare agencies with the goal of their adopting Blind Removals, a racial equity strategy in child protection. Understanding the negative impact of removing children from their parents unnecessarily, Pryce has also written on the lingering, historical trauma of sanctioned family separations in the US.
Jessica Pryce | Speaker | TED.com