Allegheny County child neglect screening
Released: August 2016
Occurred: April 2022
Can you improve this page?
Share your insights with us
The Allegheny Family Screening Tool (AFST) is a risk modelling tool used by Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, that aims to improve child safety by predicting the likelihood that a child referred for abuse or neglect will later experience a foster care placement in the two years after they are investigated.
The ASFT analyses personal data including birth, Medicaid, substance abuse, mental health, jail and probation records for each person reputedly involved in an allegation of child maltreatment and generates a ‘Family Screening Score’ that predicts the long-term likelihood of a child requiring protection.
The ASFT was developed by a team from Auckland University of Technology, University of Auckland, University of Southern California, and the University of California. ASFT Version 1 was released in 2016, followed by a second version in December 2018.
Reaction
In April 2022, the AP published the results of an investigation that found the ASFT had flagged a disproportionate number of Black children for 'mandatory' neglect investigations when it first was in place. Carnegie Mellon researchers also found (pdf) that social workers disagreed with the risk scores the algorithm produced about one-third of the time.
Allegheny County officials dismissed the research as 'hypothetical', based on old data, and noted that social workers can always override the tool, which was never intended to be used on its own. Oregon dropped its Safety at Screening Tool (SST) shortly after the AP's investigation. The SST had been inspired by the Allegheny Family Screening Tool.
Transparency
Allegheny County has been praised for making a significant effort to be transparent and open with the public and other stakeholders about the ASFT, notably concerning its implementation and the release of the list of predictive variables that make up the model.
However, the County has also been reluctant to release the model weights, or to provide the Family Screening Score to the families being investigated, or to judges - partly as it is seen as too difficult to explain.
Operator: Allegheny County Children and Youth Services
Developer: Rhema Vaithianathan; Emily Putnam-Hornstein; Irene de Haan; Marianne Bitler; Tim Maloney; Nan Jiang
Country: USA
Sector: Govt - welfare
Purpose: Predict child neglect/abuse
Technology: Prediction algorithm
Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Bias/disrimination - race, ethnicity
Transparency: Black box; Marketing
System
Research, audits, investigations, inquiries, litigation
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6187225-Allegheny-County-Predictive-Risk-Modeling-Tool
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/37364760/OH-SENIORTHESIS-2020.pdf
News, commentary, analysis
https://apnews.com/article/child-welfare-algorithm-investigation-9497ee937e0053ad4144a86c68241ef1
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/magazine/can-an-algorithm-tell-when-kids-are-in-danger.html
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-algorithm-screens-child-neglect.html
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/algorithm-screens-child-neglect-raises-concerns
https://www.wired.com/story/excerpt-from-automating-inequality/
https://virginia-eubanks.com/2018/02/16/a-response-to-allegheny-county-dhs/
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2019/jul/10/algorithms-family-screening-Pennsylvania/
Page info
Published: December 2022