Oregon dropping AI tool used in child abuse cases

Child welfare officials in Oregon will stop using an algorithm to help decide which families are investigated by social workers, opting instead for a new process that officials say will make better, more racially equitable decisions.

The move comes weeks after an Associated Press review of a separate algorithmic tool in Pennsylvania that had originally inspired Oregon officials to develop their model, and was found to have flagged a disproportionate number of Black children for “mandatory” neglect investigations when it first was in place.

Oregon’s Department of Human Services announced to staff via email last month that after “extensive analysis” the agency’s hotline workers would stop using the algorithm at the end of June to reduce disparities concerning which families are investigated for child abuse and neglect by child protective services.

“We are committed to continuous quality improvement and equity,” Lacey Andresen, the agency’s deputy director, said in the May 19 email.

Jake Sunderland, a department spokesman, said the existing algorithm would “no longer be necessary,” since it can’t be used with the state’s new screening process. He declined to provide further details about why Oregon decided to replace the algorithm and would not elaborate on any related disparities that influenced the policy change.

——-

This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series, “Tracked,” that investigates the power and consequences of decisions driven by algorithms on people’s everyday lives.

——-

Hotline workers’ decisions about reports of child abuse and neglect mark a critical moment in the investigations process, when social workers first decide if families should face state intervention. The stakes are high – not attending to an allegation could end with a child’s death, but scrutinizing a family’s life could set them up for separation.

From California to Colorado…