Vernon Brooks Carter, Ph.D., studies the removal of Native American and Alaskan Native (NA/AI) children from their homes, which has been a concern for child welfare workers and policy makers for many years. The numbers of NA/AI children in out-of-home care is significantly greater when compared to Non-Indian children. This disproportion of NA/AI children in out-of-home care has persisted almost 30 years after the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) of which a major objective was to decrease the number of NA/AI being placed into the foster care system (Donald, 2003). There is very little in the literature looking at this issue on the national level. The focus of his current research is to examine significant variables that are associated and may predict placement of children into out-of-home care. One of those variables is domestic violence: active domestic violence and families with a history of domestic violence. A second variable of interest concerns the impact of race/ethnicity: placement of Latina/o children into kinship care. These areas of interest are being explored through secondary analysis of The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a national longitudinal dataset.
