This report is divided into two parts. Part A focuses on the dangers that occur at Pennsylvania’s residential facilities when Pennsylvania is a county-based system, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (“PA-DHS”) fails to provide meaningful oversight. This section provides an overview of the current residential facility landscape in Pennsylvania and PA-DHS’s oversight structure for these facilities. It details the methodology that the reviewers used to analyze the oversight mechanisms for a sample of residential facilities in Pennsylvania and focuses on the dangers that children encounter in these facilities due to a dearth of oversight. Part A also provides recommendations to improve the oversight structure in Pennsylvania and better ensure children’s safety at these residential facilities. Part B provides background on child residents’ educational rights, details the inferior education that children at these residential facilities receive, especially those children with disabilities, and the devastating consequences. Most importantly, this section offers recommendations to ensure that child residents at these facilities receive the quality education to which they are legally entitled.
