Child Welfare Report Card Sparks Calls For City Council Hearing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia City Councilwoman Cindy Bass has called for hearings on the child welfare system's recent report card on its providers.
The grades were not good, but child welfare officials say that's why they put out the report card.
Human Services Commissioner Cynthia Figueroa, last year, took over a system in chaos, due to a rough transition, in moving its caseload from city social workers to Community Umbrella Agencies, or CUAs.
She says the scorecard was meant to provide baseline data on how the CUAs are doing.
"Our goal as a department is to really track progress from that baseline," Figueroa said.
The baseline is low and that's what bothers councilwoman Bass.
"All of them had D's. Eighty percent of them had at least one F. So how is that acceptable for our most vulnerable population?" asked Bass.
Figueroa notes the report cards are for last year's performance and she's already made changes that should lead to improvement.
"We know there's more work to be done, but we believe we're on the right path," she said.
