Responding to two deaths that might have been prevented by the Denver Department of Human Services, the department’s manager ordered an external review Thursday of the agency’s policies and practices.
Roxane White said she initiated the review after informing Mayor John Hickenlooper of her plan.
“We are always looking at ways to improve, but with the two recent fatalities we want to make sure we looked deeper,” White said.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Kempe Center and the Colorado Department of Human Services will conduct the review, which is expected to take about two months, White said. It will start Tuesday.
Denver officials are currently gathering information and reviewing practices in the death of 3-year-old Niveah Gallegos and have 45 days to turn that over to the state for its fatality review.
The external review will be in addition to the fatality review but will look at everything from practices and policies to individual cases.
The organizations will review files and hotline calls, interview staff and look at the filing of dependency and neglect petitions.
Suzanne Barnard, senior operations manager for the mountain west region at the Casey Foundation, said it is impossible to say whether Denver Human Services workers could have prevented the recent child deaths, but the review will determine if policy changes can prevent future incidents.
“It’s like looking into a crystal ball of human behavior,” she said. “Two men allegedly murdered these children.”
Barnard said the Casey Foundation has been working with Denver for five years in reviewing their practices but this will be a broader effort.
The second fatality involves Chandler Grafner, 7, who died in May of malnutrition, a month after Human Services workers failed to investigate a complaint from his school that he had been missing for a month.
Grafner’s guardians have been charged with murder.
Niveah died last week and her mother’s boyfriend, who had been investigated by police and human services for allegedly sexually abusing her in 2006, has been arrested in her death.
Angel Ray Montoya and Niveah’s mother, Miriam, are in jail for investigation of events leading up to her death.
Montoya, who is registered sex offender, was not prosecuted in the 2006 sex-assault case because Denver police said Miriam Gallegos refused to cooperate. Human Services declined to say what it did in the case, citing privacy laws.
White also declined to say what procedures or policy changes could have prevented the deaths, saying she doesn’t want to prejudice the review.
Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the state human services agency, said they regularly do reviews of county agencies, but this is the first time she can remember nonprofit agencies assisting with the process in Colorado.
In the past three years, the state has done reviews in Moffat, Crowley, Lake, Kit Carson and Gilpin counties, and there is one underway in Weld. They undertake the reviews when they find something unusual in the county’s statistics.
Marie J. Peer, director of the Moffat County Department of Social Services, said the 2006 review of her department found they weren’t doing the safety assessments in all cases that need them.
“I think there are things we are doing better because of the review,” Peer said. “It was real helpful.”
Last year, Denver Human Services received 11,164 calls of suspected abuse or neglect, had 4,384 children in out-of-home care and provided home services to more than 3,000 additional children.
The Casey Foundation has worked to improve foster and human services policies around the nation, and the Kempe Center has expertise in child protection.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-954-1244 or akane@denverpost.com.
