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Child welfare algorithm faces Justice Department scrutiny

FILE - Workers field calls at an intake call screening center for the Allegheny County Children and Youth Services office in Penn Hills, Pa. on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Incidents of potential neglect are reported to Allegheny County's child protection hotline. The reports go through a screening process where an algorithm calculates the child's potential risk and assigns it a score. Social workers then use their discretion to decide whether to investigate those concerns. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) FILE - Family law attorney Robin Frank works in her office in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 17, 2022. Frank, a vocal critic of the Allegheny child protective services agency algorithm, said she in October 2022 filed a complaint on behalf of a client with an intellectual disability who is fighting to get his daughter back from foster care. The AP obtained a copy of the filing, which raised concerns about how the Allegheny Family Screening Tool assesses a family’s risk. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - Attorney Robin Frank poses for a portrait outside the Family Law Center in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 17, 2022. A longtime family law attorney, Frank fights for parents at one of their lowest points – when they risk losing their children. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - Workers field calls at an intake call screening center for the Allegheny County Children and Youth Services office in Penn Hills, Pa. on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Incidents of potential neglect are reported to Allegheny County's child protection hotline. The reports go through a screening process where an algorithm calculates the child's potential risk and assigns it a score. Social workers then use their discretion to decide whether to investigate those concerns. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) FILE - Family law attorney Robin Frank works in her office in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 17, 2022. Frank, a vocal critic of the Allegheny child protective services agency algorithm, said she in October 2022 filed a complaint on behalf of a client with an intellectual disability who is fighting to get his daughter back from foster care. The AP obtained a copy of the filing, which raised concerns about how the Allegheny Family Screening Tool assesses a family’s risk. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - Workers field calls at an intake call screening center for the Allegheny County Children and Youth Services office in Penn Hills, Pa. on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Incidents of potential neglect are reported to Allegheny County's child protection hotline. The reports go through a screening process where an algorithm calculates the child's potential risk and assigns it a score. Social workers then use their discretion to decide whether to investigate those concerns. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) FILE - Family law attorney Robin Frank works in her office in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 17, 2022. Frank, a vocal critic of the Allegheny child protective services agency algorithm, said she in October 2022 filed a complaint on behalf of a client with an intellectual disability who is fighting to get his daughter back from foster care. The AP obtained a copy of the filing, which raised concerns about how the Allegheny Family Screening Tool assesses a family’s risk. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - Attorney Robin Frank poses for a portrait outside the Family Law Center in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 17, 2022. A longtime family law attorney, Frank fights for parents at one of their lowest points – when they risk losing their children. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - Case work supervisor Jessie Schemm looks over the first screen of software used by workers who field calls at an intake call screening center for the Allegheny County Children and Youth Services, in Penn Hills, Pa. The Justice Department has been scrutinizing a controversial artificial intelligence tool used by a Pittsburgh-area child protective services agency following concerns that it could result in discrimination against families with disabilities, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) FILE - The moon sets behind homes in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 17, 2022. Around the country, as child welfare agencies use or consider algorithmic tools like in Allegheny County, an Associated Press review published in April 2022 identified a number of concerns about the technology, including questions about its reliability and its potential to harden racial disparities in the child welfare system. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - This image provided by Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pennsylvania shows the interface for the Allegheny Family Screening Tool, which the county says social workers use to predict the likelihood that a child will be placed in foster care in the two years after they are investigated. Child welfare officials in the county say the cutting-edge algorithmic tool uses data to support agency workers as they seek to protect children from neglect. The nuanced term can include everything from inadequate housing to poor hygiene. (Allegheny County Department of Human Services via AP, File) FILE - A sign marks an entrance to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. The Justice Department has been scrutinizing a controversial artificial intelligence tool used by a Pittsburgh-area child protective services agency following concerns that it could result in discrimination against families with disabilities, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Child welfare algorithm faces Justice Department scrutiny