(Gaylynn Burroughs/huffpo) A child accidentally falls off his top bunk. His mother worries. The child says his knee hurts, and it looks like a bruise is forming on his arm. His mother wants a doctor to see the child, but hesitates for a moment about taking her son to the hospital emergency room. She is afraid that her child's treating physician will not believe her when she says that her child was hurt in an accident. She knows that a social worker will call child-welfare authorities. She knows that she will be subject to an investigation. She is fearful that those child-welfare authorities may remove her child from her care and charge her with neglect. She knows that it may take several months before her child is returned to her care, and she also knows that during that time she may only be able to see her child once or twice a week. Even then, those visits may be supervised by an agency caseworker. She may decide not to take the child to the hospital. But then the bruise on her son's arm may seem suspicious to the child's teacher. The teacher may have other concerns. The child wears the same two or three outfits to school every day; he tells the teacher that sometimes he doesn't eat enough at dinner. The teacher may suspect neglect and call child-welfare authorities. Parenting while poor almost always leads to suspicion. At least 60 percent of child-welfare cases in the United States involve solely allegations of neglect, usually for inadequate food, clothing, shelter or inadequate supervision or guardianship. Not surprisingly, poor families are up to 22 times more likely to be involved in the child-welfare system than wealthier families. The consequences of contact with the child-welfare system can be devastating for certain classes of people. In particular, African-American parents are more likely to lose their children to foster care than other any other ethnic group. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Blacks make up 34 percent of the foster-care population, but only 15 percent of U.S. children. Studies have also shown that Blacks, unlike other minority groups, are overrepresented within the foster care system in every state of the nation. Part of this disparity may be explained by poverty itself: Blacks are four times more likely than other groups to live in poverty. (the full article should be read)

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