Two years ago this month, 7-year-old Chandler Grafner starved to death in the bottom of a linen closet in a case of child abuse that outraged Coloradans and shone a light on holes in the state’s child-welfare safety net.
The deaths of 12 other children that came to public attention a year later underscored those flaws.
A new law that took effect Tuesday is aimed at mending holes in that safety net by requiring every new social worker in Colorado to attend state training on how to better recognize and document cases of child abuse.
The law requires state training and certification for county and city workers, some of whom may not have received standardized on-the-job education at the local level, according to Gov. Bill Ritter.
He signed Senate Bill 164 into law Tuesday, flanked by members of a child-welfare commission he formed a year ago.
“These kids had been on the radar, . . . and we didn’t manage to protect them,” Ritter said. “Sometimes the case loads are too high and some of the training is inadequate.”
State officials can now begin drawing up curriculum for the $700,000 “academy” that should be functional by January.
Human Services Director Karen Beye said the program will first focus on the 400 new social workers that enter state ranks each year. Eventually, some of the 3,000-plus workers already employed will undergo additional training.
The legislation came out of the Children’s Welfare Action Committee, which also has recommended including domestic violence as a red flag for caseworkers and requiring caseworkers to check back with people who report potential child abuse.
SB 164 co-sponsor Rep. Joe Miklosi said steps such as statewide training could have helped Chandler and other children who’ve fallen through the cracks.
“I firmly believe some of the (cases) would have been prevented if this had been in place,” said Miklosi, D-Denver.
Later Tuesday, Ritter also signed into law Senate Bill 2, which helps boost grant funding for local emergency service agencies, and House Bill 1275, which streamlines the EMT certification process.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
