In the face of the seeming authority and objectivity of a computerized score, risk aversion, or an understandable excess of caution with children’s lives at stake, it is easy to see how a flashing red number might short-circuit an intake screener’s professional judgment. The AFST is supposed to support, not supplant, human decision-making in the call center. And yet, in practice, the algorithm seems to be training the intake workers.
