Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday announced the creation of a 25-member “action committee” to evaluate and recommend changes to the state’s troubled child-protection system.
The announcement came one day after the state Department of Human Services released a report that found state and county agencies did not do enough to prevent the deaths last year of 13 children who had been brought to the attention of agencies for abuse concerns.
“We should believe in this state that one death of a child who had contact with protective services is too many,” Ritter said. “Thirteen in our minds is an outrage.”
While the report identified problems in specific cases — communication breakdowns and inadequate follow-up were frequent problems — Ritter said the state must also look more broadly at its child-protection system to identify possible fundamental flaws.
In Colorado, county governments administer child-welfare services with oversight from the state, a structure used in 12 other states.
Ritter said that because of county personnel privacy rules, the state does not know whether any of the county social workers involved in the cases mentioned in the report have been fired.
The state also has no verification that county workers are being adequately trained.
The committee will look for better ways for all agencies to work together.
In the meantime, Ritter said the Department of Human Services will immediately expand training to county child-protection workers.
The Democratic governor said he has asked for $475,000 from the legislature to hire six new state employees to provide oversight of county child-welfare programs.
Currently, the state has one employee devoted to that oversight, Ritter said.
State Rep. Debbie Stafford, D-Aurora, said she plans to introduce a bill this session requiring counties to inform the state about the training and evaluation of child-welfare caseworkers.
“This is incredible to step back and evaluate our entire system,” Stafford said.
While the committee has 18 months to complete its work, Ritter said it will issue its first set of recommendations in October to allow for legislative action in the 2009 session.
The group will be made up of state agency executives, local government representatives, leaders of child-advocacy groups and child-welfare recipients.
Colorado Children’s Campaign president Megan Ferland said it is important for the panel to look at more than just fatality cases and take a deep look at the system as a whole.
“Just looking at child fatalities, that is not the entire problem,” Ferland said. “Keeping children alive is the first priority. But keeping them alive to live pain-filled, terror-filled lives doesn’t get you there. It still fails kids.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
