Politics
City Council Opens New Foster Care Probe After Malayshia Alford's Death, but Past Reforms Loom
Three Philadelphia City Council members introduced resolutions Thursday for public hearings into the Department of Human Services' handling of children with disabilities, child separation, and case management following the murder of 10-year-old Malayshia Alford. The push echoes years of failed reform efforts, with Councilmember Cindy Bass declaring 'heads need to roll.'
Philadelphia City Council members are renewing calls to investigate the city's foster care system after the death of 10-year-old Malayshia Alford, whose foster mother has been charged with murder. But the latest push is only the most recent in a long series of attempts to reform the Department of Human Services (DHS), and it remains uncertain whether this tragedy will produce lasting change.
On Thursday, Councilmembers Cindy Bass (D-8th), Anthony Phillips (D-9th), and Kendra Brooks (Working Families Party-At-Large) introduced resolutions demanding public hearings on DHS' work with children with disabilities, child separation, and case management. The legislation follows an executive order from Mayor Cherelle Parker creating a child welfare committee to review the foster care system and an independent investigation announced by District Attorney Larry Krasner. The Philadelphia Act 33 Team, a state-mandated interdisciplinary review, is also examining the case.
"I'll dare even say, along with some other folks, some heads need to roll over this," Bass said during Thursday's meeting. "This is completely unacceptable, and some folks need to be held responsible for this."
Alford was found dead in the trunk of a car at an apartment complex in Lindenwold, New Jersey, on Nov. 4, after her foster mother, Carprice Williams, reported her missing on Oct. 26. She was last seen alive four days before that report, and surveillance footage allegedly shows her body being moved from her home in a bag. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide by blunt force trauma. Williams, a fifth-grade teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, has been charged with murder, child endangerment, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and related offenses.
The case has exposed longstanding concerns about the city's child welfare system. In April 2019, then-Councilmember David Oh proposed a Special Committee on Child Separation to scrutinize DHS. The measure, co-sponsored by Bass, was initially rejectedâincluding by Parker, who was then a council memberâbut was reintroduced and passed that October after being amended. That committee last held hearings in 2022, according to city records.
At Thursday's meeting, public commenter April McBride McGlone testified that she and others have spent years calling for an overhaul. She noted that Oh requested body cameras for social workers during a 2022 committee hearing, and Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. (D-4th) said earlier this week that he plans to introduce a similar proposal. McGlone said she had contacted state Rep. Amen Brown, former Councilmembers Helen Gym and Darrell Clarke, and current members Jones and Nina Ahmad (D-At-Large), among others, about DHS and case management issues.
"This could have been prevented, it could have been prevented eight years ago," McGlone said. "I was fighting for Malayshia before I even knew Malayshia."
Bass compared the case to that of Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who died of starvation in 2006. Kelly's parents and multiple caseworkers were sentenced to prison following her death.
The new resolutions target specific areas. Bass's resolution calls for the Committee of the Whole to examine the city's Community Umbrella Agency system, which oversees community-based groups managing child welfare, and the school district's hiring practices. Phillips proposed hearings on safety for children placed outside their homes. Brooks introduced legislation for hearings in the Committee on People with Disabilities and Special Needs on the umbrella agencies and DHS' oversight of case management.
In a joint statement, Brooks and Phillips said Philadelphia has one of the highest child removal rates in the country, and that while the Child Welfare Oversight Board exists to provide feedback, it has not met regularly for the past three years. They added that the impacts are felt most by Black children and children with disabilities.
"The hearings will examine how the City oversees children's safety after they are placed outside their homes, how agencies respond when concerns are raised, and what more the City can do to support families and kinship caregivers, prevent unnecessary separation, and help children return home safely whenever possible," Brooks and Phillips said.
The renewed scrutiny comes amid a broader reckoning over a system that has faced repeated calls for reform. Whether the latest hearings lead to meaningful changeâor become another entry in a long history of attempted fixesâmay depend on how forcefully Council and the Parker administration follow through.