Abstract
The purpose of the project is to explore the relationship between the cultural competency of social workers investigating abuse and neglect of children in Sacramento County, the removal of those children from their parents and how this affects the disproportionate rate of African American children in foster care. The project quantitatively studies how the level of cultural competency of workers influences their decisions to place children in protective custody through a self-assessment questionnaire. The highest score for the questionnaire was 248 points and the average score for participants completing the questionnaire was 162 points, which roughly equates to 65% of the total score. Findings also show that the area where workers scored themselves the lowest was regarding agency policy and procedures.