City of Philadelphia - File #: 210850

• File #: 210850
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: WITHDRAWN
• File created: 10/21/2021
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Title: Authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services and the Committee Children and Youth to conduct joint hearings to investigate the organizational and systemic failures that led to the return of three girls to their sexually abusive father, who resumed the abuse after their return.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember Henon, Councilmember Gauthier, Councilmember Quiñones Sánchez, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Gym, Councilmember Parker, Councilmember Jones, Councilmember Thomas, Councilmember Domb, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, Councilmember Brooks, Councilmember Bass

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
10/21/2021	0	CITY COUNCIL	WITHDRAWN
10/21/2021	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed on This Week's Final Passage Calendar

Title
Authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services and the Committee Children and Youth to conduct joint hearings to investigate the organizational and systemic failures that led to the return of three girls to their sexually abusive father, who resumed the abuse after their return.

Body
WHEREAS, On October 14, 2021, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Turning Points for Children, a child welfare agency retained by Philadelphia's Department of Human Services (DHS), had agreed to pay $6 million to three sisters after the organization had returned them to their abusive father; and

WHEREAS, The girls had been repeatedly physically and sexually abused by their father and others for years. The horrors persisted until June 2015, when child services removed the girls from his custody, and he was barred from seeing them. In 2016 Turning Points allowed two of the girls to return to their father's custody for unknown reasons as they were returned to him despite him having open criminal charges, no fixed address, and no source of income; and

WHEREAS, Turning Points caseworkers reportedly conceded having limited knowledge about the extent of the abuse that followed the girls from home to home, according to the complaint. The victims' attorney indicated that at least five caseworkers and two supervisors had been involved in the girls' case, which may have led to serious mistakes, including misinterpreting the father's criminal record and failing to conduct a court-ordered psychosexual evaluation of him; and

WHEREAS, In 2017, child welfare advocates at the Philadelphia Children's Alliance learned the full extent of the man's brutality during an interview with the children. According to court records the father was convicted in 2018 of numerous charges related to the abuse; and

WHEREAS, Formed in 2008, Turning Points for Children provides supportive services to children in the city's foster-care system. In recent years, Turning Points has broadened i...