To Escape Court Oversight, D.C.'s Child Welfare System Is Cutting Corners

In the second-floor cubicles and offices of D.C.’s child welfare agency, on 2nd and I streets SE, small clusters of social workers watched, mute with shock, as Christian Greene spoke.

Sneaking furtive glances at their phones, which streamed live video of the Child and Family Services Agency’s Feb. 26 performance oversight hearing before the D.C. Council, they listened to the agency’s former ombudsman talk about how she was fired for refusing to downplay the severe and troubling trends so many of them had witnessed. They listened to her berate agency leadership for gutting the ombudsman’s office of its investigatory responsibilities, and for manipulating workers’ caseload data to make the agency appear more functional than it was.

More >> To Escape Court Oversight, D.C.'s Child Welfare System Is Cutting Corners