For years, people with intimate knowledge of foster care practices at the Department of Human Services cited similar problems: random and subjective decision-making, the confusion of poverty and neglect, an unstable workforce riven by turnover — and more.

Now, those complaints stand a greater chance of being heard after two city councilmembers — sparked by a Philadelphia Journalism Collaborative investigation, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer — launched probes into the city’s foster care operations.

The series of stories focused on dozens of lawsuits filed against the city’s community umbrella agencies, or CUAs, a network of private agencies contracted to provide services on behalf of children who were injured or killed in the city’s child welfare system. The problems exposed b

See Full Page