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Colorado unveils plan to better protect children
Colorado will overhaul how it trains child abuse caseworkers, make more information public when a child dies of abuse or neglect and will start holding counties accountable for how they deal with reports of child abuse, state officials said Thursday.
Reforms unveiled by Gov. John Hickenlooper and Reggie Bicha, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services, are aimed at improving a child welfare system that has seen 43 children die in the past five years amid concerns that caseworkers did not do enough to save them.
"Every decision we make in formulating and implementing this plan has the safety and well-being of children and their families at the forefront," Hickenlooper said in a prepared statement.
The plan, which took a year to develop, has five key strategies. The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Casey Family Programs helped the state come up with the program and has contributed more than $600,000 toward developing and implementing the proposal.
Bicha, in an interview Thursday, said the plan will create a common way for caseworkers throughout Colorado to deal with case referrals. He said caseworkers in 17 counties already are trained in the new approach and the state will expand the system to all counties in the state.
