The Markup
Even those who work closely on child welfare issues in the city often don’t know ACS’ algorithm exists: several lawyers, advocates, and parents learned about it for the first time from The Markup, and those who did know about it were unaware of the factors that contribute to a score. H likely will never get confirmation how she was scored, or whether she reached the threshold for additional scrutiny into her daughter’s case. ACS tells neither families, their attorneys nor its caseworkers when the algorithm flags a case.