The Colorado legislator who formed a child-abuse commission hopes to improve state reviews of fatal cases and create an independent office where citizens could go with complaints.
Rep. Debbie Stafford, vice chairman of the House committee overseeing social-service agencies, said she may also offer legislation requiring better cooperation between social services and law enforcement agencies in child-abuse investigations.
The main barrier, she said, is money. In a legislative session where existing state programs face budget cuts, she expects it will be difficult to pass any bill requiring new state expenses.
One option Stafford, R-Aurora, sees is to place an ombudsman overseeing the child-protection system within Colorado’s existing child-guardian program, possibly financed by a grant that would not require state dollars.
Colorado is one of 11 states with child-protection programs operated by counties and supervised by the state. Stafford said she has heard from commission members and citizens that nobody seems accountable in this system.
“The biggest breakdown I see is there is not a satisfactory place for the consumers to share their concerns,” she said. Creating an ombudsman office “is going to be a big task, but we may be able to identify the resources and the will to accomplish it.”
The ombudsman office has been mentioned by several members of a commission composed of child advocates, state and county officials, citizens and others interested in helping to protect Colorado children from abuse.
The commission was formed in response to a Denver Post series that reported that calls to social-service agencies preceded 41 percent of Colorado’s child-abuse and neglect deaths, and that a voluntary state review system had not reported on many of those cases.
Stafford said she also wants to see a state-legislated child-fatality review commission – provided money can be found to support it.
“What I’m hearing,” she said, “is the voluntary system we have right now is not able to respond consistently to the need” for reviewing child welfare agencies’ involvement before fatalities. “Did we have a breakdown? What can we learn from this?”
Steve Christian, child welfare program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, suggested at Friday’s commission meeting that Colorado should re-examine the confidentiality of government records in fatal child-abuse cases.
“Right now the Colorado statute’s very restrictive – unnecessarily so, I think,” he said.
Other commission members said they hoped its mission will grow into a long-term commitment to bring more private resources and volunteers to child-protection programs.
Separately, state Rep. Mark Cloer, R-Colorado Springs, has introduced legislation to examine whether state and county social-service agencies should face potential civil or criminal penalties if they violate child-protection regulations.
His bill proposes to create a committee after the legislative session that would re-examine government immunity in child-abuse and neglect cases.
