Denver’s child-safety workers are doing a better job of assessing “risk and safety” in investigations of child abuse, but budget constraints, changes in leadership and a new tool to guide decisions have hampered improvements, a study scheduled for release today found.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, conducted the study and tracked the status of recommendations it made to the city in 2008.
Denver’s Department of Human Services requested the review by the foundation in 2007 after two high-profile deaths of children who had had contact with the agency: Chandler Grafner, 7, who starved to death in the care of his mother’s ex-boyfriend and his wife; and Neveah Gallegos, 3, who investigators say was killed by her mother’s boyfriend, who had been accused of sexually assaulting the child.
The Casey foundation, at the request of the agency, reconvened focus groups this past spring to assess progress.
“Many aspects regarding risk and safety assessment have improved over the past year, and staff report that in general, the results are positive,” the foundation reported.
Staffers investigating allegations of child abuse are now interviewing more people, including both parents and all household members, and are regularly conducting more-thorough background and child-abuse history checks, the review found.
Extra training also has been conducted in how to conduct risk and safety assessments, it concluded. It also found that risk and safety are reassessed at every key decision-making point in the system.
“We’re very proud of our progress,” said Toni Rozanski, the agency’s director of child-welfare services. “I do want to comment that we do realize and commit to the work that still needs to be done.”
In 2008, the agency pledged that it would hire 40 more workers to handle bulging child-welfare caseloads, but attrition has pushed their ranks back down. The agency remains in compliance with national standards on the number of cases assigned to staff.
Budget constraints have slowed the pace of reforms but “have not compromised leadership’s commitment to put the reforms in place,” the report states.
It found that staffers felt they were pressured to complete initial assessments too quickly, often within three weeks.
“Staff report that three weeks is an unreasonable time frame, and their perception is that this pressure exists in order to justify quicker case closures to deal with budget constraints,” the report found.
The reviewers found that the push for timely assessment of cases was likely to prevent cases from lingering too long in their initial-assessment stage where there are minimal services and case planning.
They recommended that the agency emphasize that the pressure for quick turnarounds is not done to save money.
Further, the reviewers found that the creation of a “decision tree” aimed at assisting staff in making decisions on when to file dependency and neglect petitions had backfired.
“Unfortunately, the decision tree has had the unintended consequences of further confusing decision-making protocols,” the reviewers reported. “Denver County leaders are aware of the confusion created by this new tool and are making plans to do away with its use.”
Revekka Balancier, an agency spokeswoman, said that the “decision tree” tool was too rigid and failed to account for some of the nuances involved in individual cases.
The Casey report said a system that encourages a team approach that involves family members and other kin of abused children will get more emphasis now.
The review also found that the agency is doing a better job of ensuring more cases end up with court supervision and a better job of reaching out to relatives who can care for abused children. Communication among the agency’s staff, judges and attorneys also has improved, the study reports.
Tight budgets have created stress, though, and “it is also clear that some of the negative organizational structure is avoidable, and that staff believes it is a result of lack of trust or faith in their work,” the report said.
Reorganizations at the agency also have had an impact.
“In some cases these changes have impacted the pace of implementation, and in others it has allowed the recommendations to move forward more quickly,” the report found.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
