New approach to monitoring the performance of local aging agencies has replaced an old, subjective system that allowed flaws to go unaddressed
“CAPE gave us constructive feedback, highlighted our strengths and guided us in refining practices that directly benefit the individuals we serve.” – Butler County AAA Executive Director Beth Herold
Butler, PA – Pennsylvania Department of Aging (PDA) Secretary Jason Kavulich today visited the Butler County Area Agency on Aging (AAA) to underscore the drastic changes the Shapiro Administration has implemented to better protect older adults while improving the transparency, accountability and system performance of Pennsylvania’s local aging network.
The Department oversees a network of 52 AAAs that each provide programs and protective services for older adults across Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. The Department recently overhauled the way it monitors AAA protective services programs by replacing an old, subjective, pass/fail system with a new, more objective and robust system that provides local aging agencies with valuable information to improve services and better protect older adults.
“The old system was like a teacher telling a student they passed or failed for the year, without providing any grades in individual subjects or feedback on how to get better,” Kavulich said. “The new performance evaluation system provides AAAs with the concrete feedback they need to make adjustments and improve services for older Pennsylvanians.”
PDA established its new Comprehensive Aging Performance Evaluation (CAPE) system to better monitor, analyze and score the way AAAs use their resources and provide programs and services – including adult protective services – for older Pennsylvanians.
Secretary Kavulich visited the Butler County AAA to host a roundtable centered on CAPE’s transformative impact on the AAA network and to hear how the new approach is leading to positive, real-world results in Butler County and keeping older adults safe.
“Participating in the state’s CAPE evaluation has strengthened our agency’s work in meaningful ways,” said Butler County AAA Executive Director Beth Herold. “As a director for 15 years and a nurse, I value any tool that helps us improve the care and support we provide. CAPE gave us constructive feedback, highlighted our strengths, and guided us in refining practices that directly benefit the individuals we serve.”
In a historic move to increase transparency and public accountability, PDA in April 2025 for the first time in its history began publishing the results of CAPE performance evaluations on its website. The department recently announced the results of three new evaluations for AAAs in Jefferson, Montgomery and Schuylkill counties are publicly available on its website, bringing the total number of results for AAAs on PDA’s website to 34 covering 45 counties.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to know how their local aging network or the network serving their loved one is performing, and we for the first time in the Commonwealth’s history are making that information available for people to view on our website,” Kavulich said. “At a time when people can immediately access performance evaluations for their shared-ride drivers or their local restaurants, they expect to be able to review reliable information about the programs and services older Pennsylvanians are receiving.”
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 September 2026, 50 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 September 2026, 30 out of 52 AAAs – nearly 60 percent – are scoring 85 percent or better on meeting the 20-day timeframe for making protective services determinations.
Pennsylvanians can learn more about how the department is serving the needs of older adults by visiting PDA’s website.