The callous killing of George Floyd at the hands of those charged with his protection has energized calls to reform our policing system. But if we’re serious about protecting Black families as a whole, we cannot limit the conversation to the police alone. We need to transform the child welfare system, too.

As Pennsylvania districts finalize plans for how to reopen schools amid rising coronavirus case counts, Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that officials have few good options for how to safely return students to the classroom.

Over the course of their childhood, a staggering 53% of Black children will be investigated by CPS. Once in foster care, some research indicates Black children are less likely than white children to be placed with their kin or ever returned to their families.

Foster children have enormous challenges even in the best of times. The coronavirus pandemic threatens them with even greater turmoil, isolating them from adult supervisors and friends and making it harder to move on to new lives — either with biological or adoptive families, or as newly independent adults.