Performance Strengthens the Safety Net

We ensure that District child welfare makes a positive difference for children and families by providing internal and external evaluations and metrics to regularly assess the strength and effectiveness of the safety net.

CFSA Strategic Agenda

The Four Pillars is CFSA's self-determined strategic agenda to significantly improve outcomes for children, youth, and families at every step in their involvement with District child welfare. The Four Pillars Scorecard is CFSA's quarterly report to the community regarding progress in achieving eight key outcomes.

Court-ordered Benchmarks

The District continues to work to shed court oversight of child welfare under the lawsuit originally filed as LaShawn A. v. Barry in 1989. For the first time, the Implementation and Exit Plan that U.S. District Court issued in December 2010, includes clear sustainability and exit provisions.

• The Court-appointed Monitor issues a report about CFSA performance against benchmarks in the Implementation and Exit Plan every six months.
• CFSA's LaShawn infographic provides a quick overview of the court-ordered requirements and visually summarizes the Court Monitor's most recent findings.
• Annual Public Report

Each year, CFSA evaluates and reports on how well local child welfare is doing in meeting requirements of the District's Adoption and Safe Families Act.

Update on LaShawn and Four Pillars Framework

Since CFSA exited the LaShawn v. Bowser lawsuit in 2022, the Four Pillars scorecard was retired and the Four Pillars Performance Framework was introduced. Click here to access the annual Four Pillars Performance Framework reports.