Child Welfare Reform – Colorado

Child welfare reform: Colorado unveils plan to better protect children, By Christopher N. Osher, February 16, 2012, Denver Post: “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 today. 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 Case Family Program helped the state come up with the program and has contributed more than $600,000 toward developing and implementing the proposal…”