Black children and children of color tend to be overrepresented in the foster system, thanks to a child welfare system that disproportionately punishes Black and brown families . In 2000, Black children represented 36 percent of children in foster care, though they were only 15 percent of the child population. And even though there has been a focus on decreasing the number of kids in foster care since the early 2000s, in 2016, Black children were still nearly a quarter of the children in foster care . Many children in state custody are placed in group homes, especially as they reach their teenage years.