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I want you to image that you are
a Child Protective Services worker.
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And you have to respond
to a report of child abuse.
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You walk into a home, unannounced,
unexpected, certainly uninvited.
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The first thing you see is a mattress
in the middle of the room, on the floor.
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Three kids lying on it, asleep.
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There's a small table nearby
with a couple of ashtrays,
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empty beer cans.
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Large rat traps are set in the corner,
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not too far from where
the kids lie asleep.
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So you make a note.
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A part of your job is walking
through the entire home.
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So you start with the kitchen,
where there's very little food.
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You notice another mattress
in the bedroom, on the floor,
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that the mother shares
with her infant child.
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Now, generally, at this point,
two things may happen.
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The children are deemed unsafe
and removed from the home,
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and placed in state custody
for a specified period of time.
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Or the children remain with their family
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and the child welfare system
provides help and support.
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When I was a Child
Protective Services worker,
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I saw things like this all the time.
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Some far better, some far worse.
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I asked you to imagine
yourself in that home,
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because I wonder what crossed your mind.
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What guides your decisions?
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What's going to impact
your opinion of that family?
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What race, ethnicity,
did you think the family was?
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I want you to realize
that if those children were white,
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it is more likely that their family
stays together after that visit.
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Research done at
the University of Pennsylvania
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found that white families, on average,
have access to more help and more support
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from the child welfare system.
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And their cases are less likely
to go through a full investigation.
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But on the other hand,
if those kids are black,
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they are four times
more likely to be removed,
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they spend longer periods
of time in foster care,
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and it's harder to find them
a stable foster placement.
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Foster care is meant to be
an immediate shelter of protection
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for kids who are at high risk.
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But it's also a confusing
and traumatic exit from the family.
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Research done at
the University of Minnesota
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found that kids
who went through foster care
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had more behavioral problems
and internalized issues
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than kids who remain with their families
while receiving help and support.
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The scenario I mentioned earlier
is not uncommon.
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A single mother,
living in low-income housing
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with her four children.
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And the rats make it
almost impossible to keep food,
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let alone fresh food in the home.
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Does that mother deserve
to have her children taken from her?
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Emma Ketteringham,
a family court attorney,
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says that if you live
in a poor neighborhood,
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then you better be a perfect parent.
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She says that we place unfair,
often unreachable standards
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on parents who are raising their kids
with very little money.
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And their neighborhood and ethnicity
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impact whether or not
their kids are removed.
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In the two years I spent
on the front lines of child welfare,
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I made high-stakes decisions.
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And I saw firsthand
how my personal values impacted my work.
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Now, as social work faculty
at Florida State University,
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I lead an institute
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that curates the most innovative
and effective child welfare research.
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And research tells us that there are
twice as many black kids in foster care,
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twenty-eight percent,
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than there are in the general
population, 14 percent.
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And although there are
several reasons why,
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I want to discuss one reason today:
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implicit bias.
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Let's start with "implicit."
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It's subconscious,
something you're not aware of.
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Bias -- those stereotypes and attitudes
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that we all have
about certain groups of people.
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So, implicit bias is what lurks
in the background
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of every decision that we make.
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So how can we fix it?
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I have a promising solution
that I want to share.
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Now, in almost every state,
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there are high numbers of black kids
going into foster care.
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But data revealed that Nassau County,
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a community in New York,
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had managed to decrease
the number of black kids being removed.
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And in 2016, I went
into that community with my team
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and led a research study,
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discovering the use
of blind removal meetings.
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This is how it works.
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A case worker responds
to a report of child abuse.
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They go out to the home,
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but before the children are removed,
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the case worker
must come back to the office
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and present what they found.
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But here's the distinction:
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When they present to the committee,
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they delete names, ethnicity,
neighborhood, race,
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all identifiable information.
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They focus on what happened,
family strength, relevant history
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and the parents' ability
to protect the child.
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With that information,
the committee makes a recommendation,
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never knowing the race of the family.
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Blind removals have made
a drastic impact in that community.
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In 2011, 57 percent of the kids
going into foster care were black.
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But after five years of blind removals,
that is down to 21 percent.
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(Applause)
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Here's what we learned
from talking to some of the case workers.
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"When a family has a history
with the department,
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many of us hold that history against them,
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even if they're trying
to do things differently."
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"When I see a case from a certain
apartment building,
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neighborhood or zip code,
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I just automatically think the worst."
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"Child welfare is very subjective,
because it's an emotional field.
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There's no one who doesn't have
emotions around this work.
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And it's very hard to leave
all of your stuff at the door
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when you do this work.
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So let's take the subjectivity
of race and neighborhood out of it,
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and you might get different outcomes."
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Blind removals seem to be
bringing us closer
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to solving the problem of implicit bias
in foster-care decisions.
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My next step is figuring out
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how to use artificial intelligence
and machine learning
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to bring this project to scale
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and make it more accessible
to other states.
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I know we can transform child welfare.
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We can hold organizations accountable
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to developing the social consciousness
of their employees.
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We can hold ourselves accountable
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to making sure our decisions
are driven by ethics and safety.
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Let's imagine a child welfare system
that focuses on partnering with parents,
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empowering families,
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and no longer see poverty as failure.
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Let's work together to build a system
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that wants to make families stronger
instead of pulling them apart.
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Thank you.
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(Applause) (Cheering)
Maria Ruzsane Cseresnyes
3:40 "And research tells us that there are twice as many black kids in foster care, twenty-eight percent,
than there are in the general, population, 14 percent."
I can't believe that it is true. Some mistakes must be there. 14 percent, that is a very big number.