Child workers fare poorly in report
Poor communication, shoddy data entry, and confusion over rules were common failures among child welfare workers the Colorado Department of Human Services found after a review of 13 child deaths last year.
Those problems, combined with broader issues such as insufficient training, high turnover and overburdened departments, have prompted the state to recommend a series of major changes over the next three months ranging from proposed legislation to new rules for caseworkers.
In each death, county child welfare workers had been in contact with the family within five years before it occurred. Sometimes, contact occurred shortly before the child died.
Not every death was linked to abuse or a crime, and in a few of the cases there were no policy violations found.
But in others, including the death of a El Paso County toddler caused by her foster mother, previous abuse complaints were not properly documented or recorded in the state's database.
Colorado DHS Director Karen Beye declined to discuss specific fatality reviews used to produce the report, released Tuesday, but she told reporters at a news conference that she looked at these deaths with an eye for whether they could have been prevented. She noted that "in several of the cases the answer was ‘yes.'"
Children who died of abuse included 7-year-old Zoe Garcia, in Weld County, whose death in December was ruled a homicide. Her sister and the sister's boyfriend were charged in her death. Rosalia Garcia-Quintana, 4, died in October in Otero County of bacterial sepsis due to chronic abuse and neglect the coroner ruled. Her father and stepmother have been charged in her death.
In El Paso County, Alizé Vick, 2, died after a head injury after her foster mother, Jules Lynn Cuneo, allegedly threw her down. DHS investigated possible abuse five months earlier and decided it was unfounded. Evidence in that case, an anonymous letter and tape, was not documented in the file, though the county says it was reviewed.
The report revealed more than DHS shortcomings. It shed light on key trends shared in many of the deaths. Most children who died were infants or young children, and nearly half of the families were Hispanic. In 70 percent of the cases, there was a history of domestic violence. Substance abuse was common, and mobility was frequent.
In some cases, including in El Paso County, abuse referrals were not entered into the state's main database, called Trails, in a timely manner. A few families had been reported to social workers in different counties.
Beye presented a list of reforms planned in the next 90 days that include clarifying a number of definitions, rules and requirements.
It also adds new rules and changes existing ones. For example, the Division of Child Welfare would require additional documentation of interviews and client contacts in the state database and limit the circumstances in which counties can keep abuse assessments open longer than 30 days.
At the legislative level, Beye wants a new law that would specifically give Colorado DHS authority to access county personnel records on employment history, training and background checks. Some counties refused to provide that information, she said, saying the state was not legally entitled to it.
In the next year to 18 months, DHS plans to beef up and expand its training of caseworkers, work closer with other agencies such as public health, and better utilize other resources within DHS that don't typically overlap with child welfare, such as mental health services.
