About 53 percent of the state's more than 3,000 foster children are native Hawaiian, while only 36 percent of foster families are, according to state statistics.

The state Department of Human Services has said that about 40 percent of native Hawaiian children are placed in non-native Hawaiian homes, and a 2003 federal review of the department listed the disparity as a big negative.
[...]
[Kokua Ohana's program coordinator] said placing a native Hawaiian foster child in a native Hawaiian home tends to "lessen the trauma that these kids go through" by allowing them to hold on to a "sense of identity."