Colorado’s child-protection system is fragmented and inconsistent, the county workers within it are overworked and often undertrained, and communication is widely lacking, a four-month review sparked by the deaths of 13 children from abuse and neglect has found.
In all 13 cases, the children or their families had prior contact with child-protection workers and, in several cases, counties had received reports of possible neglect or abuse shortly before the children died.
“I certainly looked at these cases as, ‘Are there things that could have been done to prevent the child’s death?’ and in several of the cases the answer was ‘yes,'” said Karen Beye, executive director of the state Human Services Department.
In three of the 13 cases reviewed, the state found that county departments didn’t collect sufficient information from callers reporting suspected abuse before they decided not to investigate those claims.
In six of the 13 cases, it could not be determined whether county workers checked the computer system to see whether the family had a history with the child-welfare department.
In one of the cases, a referral was not entered into the computer for four months.
“I don’t think the state has been in a very strong position in terms of supervision and oversight,” Beye said today.
The state has had warnings and reports before about the need to improve its child welfare system. Beye said ensuring the public has confidence in the system will mean going further this time.
“We have to do what is the right thing. It’s not in the telling, it’s in the doing that will inspire confidence.”
Statewide, as many as 160 children may have died from abuse and neglect in the past five years. But even that number is unclear because different computer-reporting systems have different numbers for child deaths in the state.
Some of the 13 cases investigated involve children whose names are now well-known to the public: Chandler Graffner, the 7-year-old boy who starved to death in Denver last May; Neveah Gallegos, a 3-year-old Denver girl whose body was found in a shallow ravine in September after a massive three-day search; LoReyna Barea, who was 7 when she died of “blunt force injuries and acute dehydration” in March 2007.
LoReyna’s aunt, who had custody of the girl, and the aunt’s common-law husband, Dan Partch, were charged in her death. A jury acquitted Partch last month.
In other cases, the children’s deaths were not so widely publicized. And one, an infant who died on Christmas Eve, was identified only as Baby Boy Campbell.
The review examined state and county child-protection practices as well as common characteristics of the children killed and their families.
Of the children killed, 46 percent were Latino and 38 percent were white. Five were a year old or younger.
The review found that communication problems between counties, documented as far back as 2002, persist. This is especially worrisome because of the frequency with which families move back and forth across county lines, the state reviewers said.
To correct the problems, the review panel offered a number of recommendations, including:
