Abstract
This article focuses on the Ontario Assessment and Action Record (AAR), used in child welfare to understand how this documentation supports (and fails to support) Black youth-in-care and their academic needs. We applied a critical review and analysis of three distinct but interconnected sources of data: 1) the AAR-C2-2016; 2) literature on the education of Black youth-in-care in Ontario; 3) policy and agency documents concerning how this group is faring. In our analysis of the AAR and its education dimension, findings suggest the AAR has been a race-neutral tool, which has implications in terms of how we conceptualize structural barriers faced by Black children and youth-in-care. We identified gaps and potential practice dilemmas for child welfare workers when using AAR documentation procedures. Using Critical Race Theory and the United Nations human rights framework, we argue that the AAR can be a tool to identify, monitor, and challenge oppression for Black children and youth-in-care who experience a continual negotiation of racialization alongside being a foster child. The AAR recordings can be harmful if they are simply a collection of information on the key areas of a child’s life. Prioritizing the academic needs of Black children in care is critical to social work and aligns with the commitments of One Vision, One Voice, Ontario’s Anti-Racism Strategic Plan as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, particularly in relation to the right to education.
Highlights
In Ontario, there is a significant overrepresentation of Black children and youth within child welfare institutions (Contenta et al, 2014; B. King et al, 2017; Turner, 2016a)
Informed by Critical Race Theory (CRT), anti-Black racism (ABR), and United Nations (UN) definitions of human rights as guiding theoretical frameworks, we critically reviewed three distinct but interconnected sources of data: 1) the most recent version of the AAR, referenced as the AAR-C2-2016, its user manual, and literature related to Ontario Looking After Children (OnLAC) and the AAR; 2) scholarly literature on the wellbeing of Ontario Black youth-in-care and educational achievement; and 3) policy and agency documents concerning how Black youth-in-care fare with respect to education
With respect to the AAR dimension of education, the quantity of questions and information is quite extensive as it requires the worker, caregiver and youth to engage in discussions about multiple factors including the type of school attended by the child; grade level; changes in schools; learning-related difficulties (e.g. ADHD, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder); Individual Education Plan (IEP); tutoring outside of school; reading and math performances; and savings for higher education
Summary
In Ontario, there is a significant overrepresentation of Black children and youth within child welfare institutions (Contenta et al, 2014; B. King et al, 2017; Turner, 2016a). On January 30, 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced official federal recognition and commitment to the International Decade of People of African Descent (Government of Canada, 2019). Prior to this official recognition, Canada committed to the Convention of the Rights of Children in 1990 (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR], 1989). The Committee stressed the urgency of measures to address the significant overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black children in the criminal justice system and out-of-home care (often outside of their communities); and providing appropriate assistance to support disadvantaged families with child-rearing, as well as educational opportunities for pregnant girls and teenage mothers (OHCHR, 2012). The Canadian government acknowledged the unique challenges that African-Canadians face and has committed to learning more about ABR experiences through research and data collection (Office of the Prime Minister, 2018), processes that have permeated to the provincial and local levels
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