County commissioner questions proposed child welfare changes

Some of the recommendations a gubernatorial task force is proposing to improve the state’s child welfare system would be detrimental, not beneficial, to the well-being of children and more costly for El Paso County, said Commissioner Sallie Clark.

One of the most contentious proposals would remove county control of not only the child welfare system, but all social services programs, including food stamps, welfare and Medicaid. Services would be centralized at either state or regional levels.

 “We don’t see any data that says a state-run system is better suited to families and children. I don’t think the state government is more responsive than local government,” said Clark, liaison to the El Paso County Department of Human Services. She gave a presentation on the issue at Tuesday’s county commissioners’ meeting.

The changes are recommended by a 25-person committee established by Gov. Bill Ritter in April 2008 after the number of child fatalities from abuse or neglect hit 13 statewide in 2007. All the households where the deaths occurred had previous contact with county-operated human services departments. The 13 deaths included two in El Paso County and one in Teller County.

The purpose of the committee’s recommendations is to reduce the neglect, injury and fatality rates for children, said Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services. The committee presented 13 recommendations to the governor a year ago and another 16 last week.

Committee members believe that restructuring welfare operations into what they call a “hybrid” system “would ensure greater consistency, greater access to services and more accountability,” McDonough said.

“They also believe services should not be dictated by where a child lives but that the hybrid structure would accomplish more to focus on child safety, well being and permanency than the 64-county structure we have now,” she said.

The point, she said, is for counties to be able to share resources to improve services, such as a toll-free, centralized hotline for reporting suspected child abuse and neglect. But Clark believes having a hotline at the local level ensures a faster response, and said local officials have a better understanding of the community’s needs.

Colorado is one of 11 states in the nation with a county-operated and state-supervised structure; 39 states have state-run child welfare systems. Data show mixed results in terms of which setup works better at protecting children, said Rick Bengtsson, director of the El Paso County Department of Human Services.

However, El Paso County officials, along an organization that oversees county commissioners in the state, agree with 23 of the committee’s 29 recommendations, including pre-employment training, culturally appropriate foster homes and the recruitment of faith-based organizations to increase foster care and adoption placement.

“We don’t deny there are gaps in the system,” Clark said. “One death is one too many.”

But at a time when the state and many counties are dealing with funding shortages from lagging tax revenues, Clark said having what would amount to a state takeover would be “unaffordable.”

One of the report’s recommendations is for counties to increase taxes through a mill level hike to pay for additional costs, but Clark said it would be difficult to get voter approval. Under the proposed restructuring, large counties would have to match state funding by an additional 5 percent, which Bengtsson said would amount to about $9 million a year for El Paso County. The matching share for smaller counties would decrease from the current 20 percent to 5 percent.

El Paso County’s child protective services received $40.5 million in state funding in fiscal year 2009, which ended June 30. The county kicked in another $6.7 million for its required matching dollars.

Gov. Ritter will review the recommendations and decide by the end of the month whether to move forward with some or all of them, said Evan Dreyer, the governor’s spokesman. Some would require legislative approval.