Native kids remain overrepresented in South Dakota foster system

That’s down slightly from 74% at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. The state’s fiscal years run from July to June.

The percentage is still about seven times greater than Indigenous children’s representation in the state’s general population.

The state Department of Social Services recently released its annual Child Protection Services report, detailing the number of children in foster care, how they’re cared for and where they’re discharged.

Of the state’s 1,710 foster care children at the end of fiscal year 2024, 1,239 were Native American, the report says.

Nearly 30% of children, regardless of their race, were placed in kinship care with relatives or close family friends, while 85% were placed in a “family setting” with a foster family.

The department added the “kinship care placement” detail in the latest report as it works to increase the number of family members or relatives caring for a child instead of placing a child in a foster home. Of the state’s 824 foster homes, 89 — or 11% — are Native American.

The department plans to start a Kinship Licensing Program next year to increase kinship caregiver numbers. Currently, kinship caregivers don’t receive the same amount of resources and financial support as foster parents, unless they become licensed foster parents themselves. That training is intensive, time consuming and potentially unrelated to the kin’s situation since they’re already familiar with the child.

When children have to be removed from their homes, prioritizing kinship care can improve academic, behavioral and mental health outcomes, and allow the child to stay within their culture and community, according to Child Trends, a research organization focused on child welfare.

The next step in creating the Kinship Licensing Program is to get approval from the Legislative Rules Review Committee.

The representation of Native American children in the South Dakota foster care system has increased in recent years to over 70% of all children in the system. As of June 30, 2024, 1,710 children were in the child welfare system, and 1,239 were Native American.

Native American children remain overrepresented in the South Dakota foster care system, accounting for 72.5% of the foster care population at the end of fiscal year 2024, according to new data.

That’s down slightly from 74% at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. The state’s fiscal years run from July to June.

The percentage is still about seven times greater than Indigenous children’s representation in the state’s general population.

The state Department of Social Services recently released its annual Child Protection Services report, detailing the number of children in foster care, how they’re cared for and where they’re discharged.

Of the state’s 1,710 foster care children at the end of fiscal year 2024, 1,239 were Native American, the report says.

Nearly 30% of children, regardless of their race, were placed in kinship care with relatives or close family friends, while 85% were placed in a “family setting” with a foster family.

The department added the “kinship care placement” detail in the latest report as it works to increase the number of family members or relatives caring for a child instead of placing a child in a foster home. Of the state’s 824 foster homes, 89 — or 11% — are Native American.

The department plans to start a Kinship Licensing Program next year to increase kinship caregiver numbers. Currently, kinship caregivers don’t receive the same amount of resources and financial support as foster parents, unless they become licensed foster parents themselves. That training is intensive, time consuming and potentially unrelated to the kin’s situation since they’re already familiar with the child.

When children have to be removed from their homes, prioritizing kinship care can improve academic, behavioral and mental health outcomes, and allow the child to stay within their culture and community, according to Child Trends, a research organization focused on child welfare.

The next step in creating the Kinship Licensing Program is to get approval from the Legislative Rules Review Committee.

According to the 2024 fiscal year report, Child Protection Services worked with over 700 children without removing them from their home. That can be through a “safety plan,” which is a strategy created by a social worker to address safety concerns of at-risk families while a case is being investigated.

“What we know is when parents and children can be together and both go through those changes and processes and see that behavior change at the same time, we tend to see better outcomes,” said Pamela Bennett, the division director of South Dakota Child Protection Services, during an Indian Child Welfare Advisory Council meeting earlier this year.

South Dakota is developing its federally mandated, three-year Family First Prevention Plan, which would use federal funds to pay for prevention services without removing children from at-risk homes. South Dakota is one of the last four states in the nation to create its plan.

Of the 1,006 children who left the child welfare system during the 2024 fiscal year, 493 were reunited with their families, 233 were adopted (58% by a foster parent and 37% by a relative), 63 children were transferred to a tribal program, 65 children aged out of the system, 88 were placed into a formal guardianship agreement, 50 were placed with a relative without guardianship, four were transferred to the Department of Corrections, and six were transferred to another agency.

Two children ran away and two children died in state care. The report did not include further information about the deaths or runaways. A request for more information from South Dakota Searchlight is pending with the Department of Social Services.

The department also reported the placement of 241 children in adoptive homes.