Colorado’s child welfare system is broken and has been for a long time.
Anyone who has been paying attention knows that to be the case.
Committees have been convened. Studies commissioned. And the results have had a distressing ring of repetition — a lack of accountability, failure to protect children from abuse and neglect, inadequate training and poor communication.
That’s why we were disturbed to read last week that the governor is convening yet another committee to study the two most complex proposals to fix the system. And this review is going to take another year.
Is another year of study really necessary?
We acknowledge that the specific recommendations this newest committee is going to study are complicated and controversial. They involve a vast regionalization of child welfare services, a big change from the current county-based delivery system and the creation of a central phone bank for reporting abuse.
County officials are up in arms about the proposed changes and we understand that. This would jerk the rug out from under the departments they’ve created for child services, and basically amounts to a state takeover.
As we said in October, questions need to be answered first, including proof as to how the changes would fix current problems, how much it would cost to transition to a new system and what the new system would cost to operate.
But these should not be unfamiliar questions. Gov. Bill Ritter created the Child Welfare Action Committee via executive order on April 16, 2008, after a number of high-profile child deaths.
The committee, which has met numerous times and studied the issues exhaustively, will finish its work shortly. Many of its recommendations have been or soon will be implemented.
In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a report saying the state’s child-welfare system has once again failed miserably in meeting federal standards for protecting children.
Federal officials looked at cases between Oct. 1, 2007, and March 20, 2009, that were based in three counties: Denver, Fremont and Larimer.
They interviewed people served by the system, and those who run it at both the county and state level.
The report found the system was inconsistent and had problems with accessibility and accountability.
The assessment made note of Colorado’s two-tiered system, whereby the state is responsible for overall planning and monitoring, but the counties supervise staff and deliver services. Ten other states have this type of setup.
It’s obvious this fractured system contributes to some of the worst problems. That was the upshot of a 165-page report released by the Child Welfare Action Committee in September.
Another year of pondering seems like an awfully long time for ground that has been so thoroughly turned. We have to wonder whether the December 2010 deadline, which comes a month after the governor’s re-election bid is determined, is timed more for political expediency than policy reform.
