Cheryl Grills, a professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University who has promoted and investigated child welfare reform, said the abuse is particularly hurting Black children, who are overrepresented in foster care and already face implicit bias and police brutality because of the color of their skin. Black children made up 23% of the kids in foster care nationally but only 14% of the total child population in 2018, according to Kids Count.