PHILADELPHIA — The Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice and Research at the University of Pennsylvania will host a symposium, “Bang for Your Buck: Public Child Welfare and the Pursuit of Accountability,” Wednesday, April 9, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Penn Law School, 3400 Chestnut St.

Nationally, expenditures for child-welfare programs exceed $20 billion. Investors and donors have always been concerned with return on investment, but increasingly this concept has expanded into government agencies. This symposium addresses the question, Are children better off as a result of the money spent on their behalf?

Fred Wulczyn, guest speaker at the symposium, will discuss accountability within the child-welfare system from a variety of perspectives. A research fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago where he directs the Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data, Wulczyn served on Philadelphia Mayor John Street’s Child Welfare Review Panel in 2006 and 2007. He is an expert on racial disparities in the foster-care system, adoption in the post-Adoption and Safe Families Act era and fiscal reform.

The Field Center unifies the University of Pennsylvania’s resources to promote the well being of abused and neglected children and those at risk of maltreatment. It uses an interdisciplinary model to integrate clinical care, research and education, inform policy and prepare the nation’s leaders.