LINCOLN- Last Friday, Senator Terrell McKinney held a legislative study to determine the causes of the outsized number of Black and Native American children in Nebraska's child welfare system. McKinney stated that he believes their disproportionately high involvement in the system contributes to broader problems facing Black and Native American communities.

"The disproportionality is a driver in low educational outcomes, low health outcomes, involvement in the juvenile justice system," said McKinney during the study, "The child welfare system in Nebraska is horrible." McKinney's study is among recent national efforts to rethink long-standing disparities in child welfare.

Both Black and Native communities have long and traumatic histories of families being torn apart, and the disparities in child welfare nationally have been present for decades.The study found that, in Nebraska, black children are 3.4 times more likely to be investigated for child abuse or neglect than white ones, and the disparities seen in the state are the third largest in the country.

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