Keeping kids safe
A smart new tool helps county see if a child is at risk
Allegheny County is bringing technology to bear in the effort to keep children safe. As the Post-Gazette’s Kate Giammarise reported Sunday, the Allegheny Family Screening Tool, developed by a team of researchers from California and New Zealand, uses computer modeling to assess whether a child is at risk from unsanitary living conditions, parental drug use or other problems.
Factors such as a parent’s criminal record or previous child welfare complaints influence the risk score. If the score is high, caseworkers are more likely to step in. Marc Cherna, director of the county Department of Human Services, says the tool makes his agency a trailblazer in child protection. That is exactly what the public wants it to be.
By law, complaints about physical and sexual abuse of children must be investigated promptly. But the county has discretion in how it responds to the majority of hotline complaints it receives — those about living conditions, truancy, parental drug use and how well children are supervised.
That means walking a tightrope. The agency, answering thousands of hotline calls each year, must use its resources wisely. No one wants an at-risk child to go without help. Not all complaints can be investigated at once, however, and not all calls warrant an investigation. Case in point: Mr. Cherna said a person may call to say a family’s house is “messy,” but that does not mean the children inside are being mistreated.
The screening tool, rolled out in August, lends objectivity and speed to the traditionally time-consuming, subjective process of determining when to get caseworkers involved. Information from the hotline call is typed into a computer, which searches the agency’s “data warehouse” for records about individuals involved in the complaint. The warehouse contains 1 billion records pertaining to residents who have been served by the county’s human service programs or who have had involvement with the courts, housing authorities or other government entities. The computer program evaluates the data it finds and produces the risk score, which helps the agency determine what, if any, additional action to take.
Officials are happy with the screening tool so far, but they are still making modifications and will have a better idea of its effectiveness in a year. Clearly, it portends a change in how the agency functions. The county revisited past complaints using the screening tool and found that it would have handled some differently. Based on the risk scores the tool produced, it would have investigated some cases it did not and passed on some cases it did investigate.
The county was smart to recognize the limitations of the old system and invest in a potentially better process. The cost of about $1 million, partially underwritten by the Richard King Mellon Foundation, is a small price for a system that better identifies families who need help and leaves others in peace.