North Carolina—as a state in the racially segregated Southeast—offers a unique context to understand access to social services for Hispanic families and children. Theories of administrative burden posit that Hispanic families likely face high learning, compliance, and psychological costs. Hispanic families face challenges that compound these costs: limited English language and literacy proficiency, complex household composition, and citizenship status of family members and other household members. With new survey results and qualitative data on social service administrators and front-line workers, we examine how these costs may affect access to programs for Hispanic families who reside in a state with a history of racial divisions that have shaped local policy implementation. Some workers noted transportation barriers and complex application processes as limiting access. While we expected to find that Hispanic families may be disadvantaged by decentralized service delivery in a manner that is similar to the experiences of African American families, workers instead note significant resources that help facilitate Hispanic families’ access to programs. Workers view national anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, rather than state and local policy rules or resource constraints, as limiting their capacity to serve Hispanic families.

北卡罗来纳州作为东南部种族隔离的一个州，为了解拉美裔家庭和儿童获得社会服务的机会提供了独特的背景。行政负担理论认为，西班牙裔家庭可能面临较高的学习、服从和心理成本。西班牙裔家庭面临的挑战加剧了这些成本：有限的英语语言和读写能力、复杂的家庭构成以及家庭成员和其他家庭成员的公民身份。通过新的调查结果和有关社会服务管理者和一线工作人员的定性数据，我们研究了这些成本如何影响西班牙裔家庭获得项目的机会，这些家庭居住在一个有着种族分裂历史的州，这些种族分裂的历史影响了当地政策的实施。一些工作人员指出，交通障碍和复杂的申请流程限制了准入。虽然我们预计西班牙裔家庭可能会因分散的服务提供而处于不利地位，其方式与非裔美国家庭的经历类似，但工作人员却注意到有助于促进西班牙裔家庭参与计划的大量资源。工人们认为，国家反移民政策和言论，而不是州和地方政策规则或资源限制，限制了他们为西班牙裔家庭服务的能力。