Does race matter?

We are becoming foster parents and are open to either boy/girl age 3-8 any race. But I was wondering, does it ever happen where they place kids in a home with a different race family? Just curious.

We have had past placements who were a different race then we are or multiracial. Our 17 yrold STBAD R is a different race then we are as well.

Yes!! There are threads under Transracial Adoptions about this. Also, when you do a homestudy, you'll be asked what races you're open to.

They place in different race families constantly. It is illegal to consider race when placing a child for a foster placement. Here in Ohio, they are not even allowed to tell you the race of the child when they call you for a placement, unless you specifically ask. However, if you are taking a child over 3-4 years old, you may want to think about how culturally diverse your area is, if a child from a different race than you would feel comfortable in your home/neighborhood. Being placed in foster care is tramautic enough for kids, but being the only one of a different race, and culture can really be even further traumatizing. Since I am only doing 0-5, I am taking any/all races. However, would not really consider adopting or fostering older than that, since my area is NOT diverse at all. Just things to think about.

I am CC and have had children placed with me who were Hispanic, AA, Polynesian, CC and Native American. It happens more frequently in some areas than others.

We currently have 3 FKs each with a different ethnicity and none the same as us. So yes, it happens here and it happens often. It makes it so that your family is noticeably "different", but we've not had any negative experiences. Sometimes you get the overly nosey or intrusive questions, so it's good to be prepared for that.

This is what they told us in our classes. To really think about race and what exposure that child would have to other kids like them. My husband and I had to be pretty honest that if we took a child not of our race - they would rarely be exposed to their culture in our area or even see other kids that look like them. In the end we said we would take any race but I am not sure how that would work with us for an older child either. But I also think that because of the area we live in that it is unlikely we would get children of other races anyway.

In our area, they try to put Native American kids in tribal homes. In fact our local tribe has their own CASA program. Native American children are rarely allowed to be adopted by non-tribal members so its within their best interest to have as few moves as possible. For my placements, I only asked if they spoke English because I think it would be very difficult to not only be put in a strangers home, but then to have a different language in the home. Other than that, it hasn't come up either on my end or on the agencies/counties.

I think in addition to the exposure the child would have to others like them, you need to look at the racial demographics where you live. The area we live in is not very culturally diverse - it is about 50-50 white/black. However, racism (black-white) is very high. It is shocking and sad as I come from a very culturally diverse area and never saw/heard things that I do here. And it is a different experience being discriminated against being in a dominant race group! We felt that it would be very difficult for an AA child to have CC parents given these dynamics, in addition to being a FC.

We are a CC family. Our placements (all but one) have been other races. The two we currently have are mixed.

Generally, and I think this is the case in most areas, there is a huge dichotomy between the number of minority foster homes and the number minority foster kids. In our area 75% of the foster homes are mostly CC, while the number of kids in foster care who are of a non CC race is about 60%. So, yes...while it is preferable to place a child with a foster family who is of the same race, it isn't always possible. I think the general feeling in my area is that if you are going to hold out for a child who is the same race as you, you will be waiting a long time (unless you're a minority race). Also, FWIW...they don't always know the race when they call, especially for a newborn. We've had 3 kids (different placements) that we were called and told they were CC. When we got them it was obvious each time that they were not CC. In my area they go by what the BP identifies them self as at the time of placement. So if you have a CC mother, and an absent AA father, they may call you for a CC child who is in fact bi-racial.

It may be illegal but I know for a fact that it happens. I work with a woman who got a 5 day old black child(she's white) and when she was going for an adoption(child's mother gave her up in the hospital) the case worker didn't like the idea of a single white woman adopting a black child. Even in our case right now, the demeanor of our case worker seemed to change and her want for the baby to go back to his family changed after she found out we were interested in adopting him. He's Mexican and we're not Hispanic.

Depending on your area demographics, it probably happens 60% of the time. Our former foster daughters were AA, we are Caucasian. It didn't matter to us, and it didn't matter to the girls except that the old one wished she looked more like us, but it certainly mattered to their mom, and lots of other people who wondered where were got "those" kids from.

10 out of my 12 placements have been a different race.

My first placement was a black baby girl (I'm white). They asked me if I would take her but (because she was foster/adopt) they had to make sure there were no Afr/Amer homes before they brought her to my house.After that, it seemed like the subject of race was never a factor. My placements were: asian, hispanic and african/american.