D.C.’s child welfare agency has become “unstable,” endangering not only children who may be neglected or abused, but harming countless others who rely on the city to help them find caring families, a federal court-appointed monitor has concluded.

“Since January, child welfare system performance has suffered across the board,” Judith Meltzer wrote in a Sept. 15 letter to federal Judge Thomas Hogan, who appointed Meltzer and the Center for the Study of Social Policy to monitor D.C.’s failing child protective services.