African-Americans and Hispanics account for nearly 25 percent of the children in Erie County, yet they make up more than 55 percent of those in foster care.

Likewise, in the United States, while minorities represent about 33 percent of all children, they are 55 percent of the foster care population, despite research indicating that their families are not more likely to abuse or neglect their children.

Why are minority children so overrepresented in the country’s child welfare system, and what can be done about it?

The solutions are not clear or simple, but a conference Monday in Buffalo offered strong evidence that judges, prosecutors, attorneys, caseworkers and social services officials are frustrated with a system that seems to encourage the disparities.

“We have been addressing disproportionality for decades. It’s time to start doing something about it,” said Katherine R. Delgado, a former Colorado chief juvenile judge and currently a state district court judge.

Delgado was keynote speaker before about 400 people at a conference in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center focused on efforts here and elsewhere to address racial disparities in the child welfare system.

Among the themes of the conference was an uncomfortable one: that ordinary social institutions, such as the housing programs that encouraged development of American suburbs, channeled wealth and opportunity in ways that encouraged poverty and segregation. Whites benefited from policies that treated African-Americans unequally, without personally being racist, and current child-protective services have been influenced by those disparities.

“Today, decisions get made differently about which cases to investigate and which children to remove from their homes,” said Oronde A. Miller of the Casey Family Foundation. “Research tells us that these decisions tend to break down along racial lines. I can’t tell you that that is the way it happens [in Buffalo], but I ask you to consider it.”

Miller and others stressed that the point of the conference is not to suggest that those who work in the child welfare system allow prejudices to influence their decisions. It’s simply to acknowledge that race has had and continues to have an impact on how children are treated because of the nature of the institutions that deal with the issue.

“The courts are so busy. Lawyers maybe have two minutes to talk to families who are already suspicious of the social services system,” Delgado said, offering one example of the problems children and their families encounter.

“Too often, we also judge people based on stereotypes,” she said, aiming her remarks at judges in the juvenile courts. “And, if we are honest with ourselves, many of those stereotypes we hold about people of color are often negative. We make assumptions about people based on those stereotypes.”

In smaller group discussions, judges, attorneys and others expressed frustration with legal, law enforcement and social services systems that often fail children who get into trouble or who come from troubled families.

Others noted that even if the systems were stronger, they can’t make up for parents who can’t or won’t look after their children.

“I see so many cases where the kid does something wrong, and the parents treat him as though he is the victim,” said one county prosecutor.

“It breaks your heart when you deal with kids who are smart and have potential, but they don’t get anywhere because their families don’t stand behind them,” said another attorney.

If the size of the conference is any indication, Erie County is further along than many other communities in seeking changes in the way courts handle juvenile cases.

Delgado, who speaks often on the subject, said that it was the largest gathering on disproportionality in the child welfare system that she is aware of.