PENNSYLVANIA DHS STATEMENT TO RTK MEDIA
October 23, 2026
Provided by Brandon Cwalina, Press Secretary, Department of Human Services

Statement text, with email line wrapping normalized:

Pennsylvania acknowledges that there have been data quality issues associated with the data indicators Maltreatment in Care and Recurrence of Maltreatment due to several issues that can be explained by separating out the data indicators, which is currently maintained within the individual county child welfare systems. The state collects foster care data from counties for the purpose of meeting AFCARS compliance requirements, but this data is maintained in a separate system from the system that contains child maltreatment data. The two systems do not have a reliable way to match individuals between the two separate systems. Plans are in place to resolve these issues and assure the maintenance of a single person record within the future child welfare case management system.

Source: DHS email received in records@rtkmediallc.com. This file contains the agency statement only, not the preceding or quoted correspondence.