Mayor Cherelle Parker has ordered a review of Philadelphia’s foster care system, following the killing of 10-year-old Malayshia Alford.
Carprice Williams, Malayshia’s foster parent, was charged with the child’s murder last week, in a case that Parker characterized as “a crisis of unimaginable proportions that has had a profound impact on our city.”
Malayshia was last seen alive Oct. 22 at Williams’ home in West Philadelphia, investigators said. Surveillance footage shows someone — an unidentified person who helped lead authorities to the girl’s remains — carrying her body out of the property early on the morning of Oct. 26, according to prosecutors.
Williams reported Malayshia missing later that day. On Nov. 4, law enforcement officials found her dead in the trunk of a vehicle parked in a lot beside an apartment complex in Lindenwold, New Jersey.
The next day, medical examiners determined that she died from blunt force trauma and ruled her death a homicide. The District Attorney’s Office subsequently charged Williams, who is behind bars pending further court proceedings.
State law requires counties to review fatalities associated with child abuse or neglect.
“This moment requires that we do more,” Parker said in a video statement published Tuesday night.
She issued a directive creating an independent advisory committee to take a broad look at the city’s child welfare network. The review is separate from the death probe and criminal investigation, the mayor added.
“The committee’s charge is to provide recommendations to strengthen our foster care system and, quite frankly, to prevent child abuse-related fatalities or near-fatalities and injuries involving children and youth in our DHS custody,” Parker said.
Members of the Child Welfare Review Committee (CWRC) will be asked to analyze coordination between the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS), foster care agencies, and the community umbrella agencies, or CUAs, that provide case management services to youth and their families.
The complex system handles children who have been removed from their biological families, primarily due to suspected abuse and neglect. As of June, 2,212 city youth were in placement, about 43% of whom were in foster care, according to DHS data.
Malayshia was in the legal custody of DHS and was receiving assistance through Catholic Community Services, one of the CUAs, the Parker administration stated. Williams, officials added, was affiliated with the Pennsylvania MENTOR foster agency.
Parker’s executive order directs the committee to investigate how DHS selects foster homes; city and state oversight of foster homes; visitation requirements, as it relates to the child’s biological family; and the city’s contracting policies for foster agencies.
The mayor can appoint up to 15 people to the committee, to include representatives from the child advocacy, social work, medical, behavioral health and legal fields, according to the text of the order. Parker indicated she would name individuals to the CWRC in the near future.
Once convened, members will have four months to compile a report and submit their findings and recommendations to the mayor.
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