Scranton, PA – Gathered with three Northeastern PA aging agencies to discuss the Shapiro Administration’s new monitoring tool, Pennsylvania Department of Aging (PDA) Secretary Jason Kavulich today continued a statewide tour highlighting how the Department’s new approach to evaluating the performance of older adult protective services is delivering better results in keeping older adults safe.
That tool, the Comprehensive Aging Performance Evaluation (CAPE), replaces a prior ineffective pass/fail system that did not provide adequate oversight of the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) network, nor did it tell a AAA what specific steps they needed to take to become compliant. CAPE not only provides those granular details to ensure a AAA is able to improve, but it also delivers historic levels of transparency and accountability of the AAA network, which provides an array of services to support older adults, including protective services. In the 26-27 budget, Governor Josh Shapiro secured a $1 million increase for CAPE so the Department can continue to improve AAA oversight and accountability.
“Under the leadership of Governor Shapiro, the Department of Aging is providing unprecedented levels of transparency and oversight of the AAA network that thousands of older adults rely on for daily needs, like transportation, meals, social activities and protective services,” said Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich. “Before the Shapiro Administration, a lackluster performance monitoring system only told a AAA whether it passed or failed and provided no insight on how to improve. CAPE completely upends that process and raises the bar of accountability to ensure our local aging agencies not only know their score but are armed with the right insight to improve their services and ultimately keep older adults safe."
During a visit today with Lackawanna, Monroe and Pike County aging services and county leaders, Secretary Kavulich noted that the work of serving and protecting older adults has never been more transparent in Pennsylvania. Through CAPE, monitoring results are now routinely posted to the Department’s website for the first time ever, with clearly defined, simple key categories for each AAA. For the first time in the Department’s history, the public can see exactly how well their local AAA is doing in programs including Protective Services, OPTIONs (help at home) services and Caregiver Support Program services.
"As a pilot agency for the CAPE, this process helped Lackawanna County Area Agency on Aging identify best practices and take our quality assurance practices to the next level. It highlighted areas where we perform well and areas that need improvement,” said Sara McDonald, Director, Lackawanna County Area Agency on Aging. “The data collected through the CAPE evaluation allows us to make local decisions to strengthen services such as Older Adult Protective Services, OPTIONS and the Caregiver Support Program, improving communities, programming, and the lives of older adults and caregivers."
“The CAPE process was a very good learning experience for our entire management team,” said Mary Claire Megargle, Executive Director, Monroe County Area Agency on Aging. “The comprehensive nature of the CAPE made us take a look at how we provide service and the Department of Aging's willingness to explain their conclusions and engage in conversation made this monitoring process more of a partnership. There is always room for improvement, and the CAPE process has given us a roadmap to guide us through some changes we needed to make.”
“The CAPE monitoring system has given our Protective Services teams documentation and procedural clarity that strengthens our ability to protect and serve older adults in Pike County,” said Robin Soares, Executive Director, Pike County Area Agency on Aging.
Launched in 2025, CAPE streamlines monitoring of a AAA’s performance through a more comprehensive approach, where each of Pennsylvania’s 52 AAAs is evaluated for different programs during a singular monitoring review. This approach gives the Department a better snapshot of the local organization’s overall functioning, helping to quickly identify trends and focus training resources where they are most needed. Last month, Secretary Jason Kavulich hosted a virtual training for 500 aging network professionals to directly address issues identified through the new system that, for years, often went unaddressed.
A deeper dive into the development of CAPE is available here.
The Department’s overhauled approach to monitoring the AAAs more aggressively, to hold them accountable and boost transparency of the process, is already making a difference in other key areas of performance:
- As of March 2026, 48 out of 52 Area Agencies on Aging are responding to reports of suspected elder abuse in a timely manner 85 or more percent of the time, often within 24 hours.
- The Department also monitors and measures each AAA monthly on the percentage of protective services cases where determination was achieved within a 20-day timeframe; as of March 2026, more than half (28) Area Agencies on Aging are scoring 85% percent or better on meeting the 20-day timeframe.
Three more AAAs – Butler, Cambria and Crawford – recently joined the growing list of agencies that have recently been evaluated, bringing the total number of results for AAAs on PDA’s website to 31, covering 42 counties. CAPE monitoring order and completion status for each AAA is here.
The Department will continue to provide that safe, reliable care thanks to a $1 million increase in the 26-27 budget for Aging Our Way, PA — the Shapiro Administration’s comprehensive 10-year strategy to transform services and strengthen support for older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers.
Since taking office in 2023, Governor Josh Shapiro has invested more than $20 million to make life better for older Pennsylvanians by helping them stay safe, healthy and engaged in their communities and to continue building community supports as they age.
Learn more about how Pennsylvania is serving the needs of older adults by visiting the Department of Aging's website.