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NEW FROM CDT  

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Across the U.S., state and local child welfare agencies serve over 390,000 youth in foster care — a particularly vulnerable population that experiences unique health, educational, and well-being issues. At the end of May, which is Foster Care Awareness Month, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) released a new report ([link removed]) that highlights the ways that data and technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) tools, can alleviate some of the high-stakes problems that face these agencies in working with foster youth and homes.

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CDT report, entitled “Fostering Responsible Tech Use: Balancing the Benefits and Risks Among Public Child Welfare Agencies.” Illustration of an adult hand and a child’s hand, palms up, with a digital image of a home floating above them.

Child welfare agencies are responsible for ensuring the safety of foster youth in their care, but encounter challenges stemming from lack of coordination across agencies working with foster youth; insufficient or biased data about children’s original home environments; and high rates of social worker turnover. CDT’s report provides recommendations to agencies who are using, or considering, data and technology systems to mitigate these challenges, while protecting the best interest of youth in foster care.

Some of the report’s recommendations are:

Identifying the problems that data or technology may solve, and the potential harms it could introduce;

Engaging affected stakeholders, from caseworkers to foster youth;

Establishing and/or enhancing inter- and intra-agency data and technology governance to guide decision-making;

Implementing and managing AI tools safely and responsibly; and

Being diligent in vetting third-party vendors.

Data and technology hold promise in assisting child welfare agencies to efficiently and equitably carry out the functions needed to support foster youth and homes. However, decisions around procurement and implementation of new systems must center around safeguarding the civil rights and civil liberties of youth in foster care.

The full report can be found on CDT’s website. ([link removed])

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