Ontario’s children’s minister says he will direct the province’s 47 children’s aid societies to collect race-based data as part of an effort to reduce the high number of black kids in care. “I believe in data collection,” Michael Coteau told a conference on Thursday marking the beginning of a province-wide push to change the way children’s aid societies interact with black families. “It is my intention in the very, very near future to mandate all children’s aid societies to collect race-based, disaggregated data,” he told child welfare officials and black community leaders at the conference. Black community leaders have long called for the collection of race-based data, arguing that tackling the overrepresentation of black kids in foster and group homes begins with knowing the extent of the problem. Coteau, who was appointed children’s minister in June, has for the first time committed the government to do so.

Source: thestar September 29, 2016 15:33 UTC