Colorado Continues to Upgrade Its Child Welfare Program

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced this week the second phase in the state's child welfare plan. The "Keeping Kids Safe and Families Healthy 2.0" plan was begun a year ago and will initially include a state child abuse hotline and additional funding so that county social service offices can provide more resources to keep kids in their own homes. Here are the details.

* Last year, the governor introduced a child welfare plan that calls for a new performance management system, redesigned employee training strategies, funding reform and increased transparency.

* Last month, Hickenlooper asked in an amended budget request that the state's General Assembly allocate $22 million to fund the changes being made to the child welfare program.

* According to Hickenlooper, the second phase will build upon what the state is doing in partnership with local government and will include a statewide hotline number to report child abuse or neglect in Colorado.

* The plan will also provide prevention services for referrals who do not meet the criteria for an investigation but for which the family is in need of additional support to maintain stability.

* There will also be additional funding, the governor's office reported, in order to provide more resources in counties that have previously overspent their core service allocations.

* There will be new training for mandatory reporters and for child abuse screening as well as mobile technology to help caseworkers be more efficient, the governor's office stated.

* The plan also calls for the Colorado Department of Human Services, counties and legislative leadership to work collaboratively with the state auditor to review the state's workload for county caseworkers.

* In November, the Denver Post published an eight-day series on the child welfare system which found that 72 of the 175 children who have died of abuse and neglect in Colorado in the past six years were with families or caregivers known to child protection workers before they died.

* Following the series, the Denver Post reported, lawmakers demanded improvements for how child abuse cases are handled.

* The newly announced child abuse hotline will come with a corresponding public awareness and prevention campaign, the governor's office stated. The plan also calls for the development of a public web site displaying statewide and county-specific data and refinement of the child fatality reporting statute to allow for the release of the child's name, date of birth and date of death.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-continues-upgrade-child-welfare-program-222400687.html

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