Hickenlooper Announces Colorado Child-Welfare System Overhaul

On Thursday, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced several changes to improve Colorado's child welfare system after the tragic deaths of 43 children that were involved in the system during the last five years.

Fox31 reports that a state review showed that some caseworkers did not follow policy in the cases surrounding the 43 children that died. So, in an effort to improve the system, Hickenlooper, along with the executive director of the Dept. of Human Services, Reggie Bicha, are looking for increased transparency as well as to hold caseworkers and county officials more accountable.

In a statement made on the Colorado Dept. of Human Services website, Bicha says on the proposed overhaul, “We have engaged the community and the stakeholders throughout this entire process to create a more efficient design for the way services are delivered in Colorado. Every decision we make in implementing this plan has the safety and well-being of children and their families at the forefront.”

The plan has five key strategies to meet the new goals of accountability and transparency, according to The Denver Post:

1. Create a common approach for all counties.
2. Use data to drive decisions and improve outcomes.
3. Improve staff training.
4. Take steps to align funding with child-welfare needs.
5. Seek legislation so more information about cases can be made public.

Over the last five years Colorado's Dept. of Human Services has been under fire for a number of high profile deaths of children involved in the system.

Just in January of 2012, 3-year-old Caleb Pacheco was found dead under a trailer home. Caleb's mother Juanita Kinzie had abandoned him more than a year ago, so Caleb went to live with his aunt Yolanda Kinzie-Graber. However, in January of 2011, Kinzie wanted her son back and despite Kinzie's history of drug and alcohol abuse, Logan County Social Services told Caleb's aunt Yolanda that she had to give the child back to his mother. That day in January when Kinzie took Caleb was the last day the family ever saw the young boy alive.

One of the most egregious examples occurred in 2007 when 7-year-old Chandler Grafner was sealed in a closet by his foster parents, denied food and water and left to wallow in his own urine and feces until he died. In 2011, a federal judge in Denver allowed a wrongful-death lawsuit to move forward against two social-service workers who allegedly were told repeatedly about the abuse, but did nothing about it.

SLIDESHOW: Images From The Phillips Trial

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated the caseworkers were social workers.

Comments

[Mr-Mikey]

01:00 PM on 02/27/2012

This should make Huffpo's front page.

Here we are with children dying inside, and outside of the system from abuse and malnutrition and there are people in this country who want to defend defunding systems to try an save these children.

The bodies of these children should lay in rest in the office of every politician who wants to defund programs to help and protect children. A reminder to them that their idiocy has very real consequences.

We need to change and improve the system for these children, provide them safer homes and better healthcare. Its a real issue for me, my mother got stripped of her children (before I was born) for having an abusive husband.. an we still haven't found them all to this day. (40 years later).

[Deborah L Davies]

09:56 AM on 02/27/2012

Before any agency can be fixed, funding incentives need be fixed. Adoption assistance has evolved into major multi billion dollar child slavery industry that ignores the abused child so that we, the public, believe it is a non ending epidemic and we all would do anything to rescue the abused child. Shame on us for thinking this agency does exactly that. Abused children are returned to abuse for your benefit...when the fatality makes the news you want this agency to have more money, more case workers, more power, more service providers. It is created, dramatized for their benefit. Child protection has little to do with todays system. Don't believe me, research it. read the fine print on almost every child tragedy, it will say known to the child protection agency or family cried for help from the agency. We are good hearted but so naive. Foster care is far more dangerous than they will ever allow you to know.

[jholderbaum]

01:47 AM on 02/20/2012

who is more important in this industry, the children or those employed by it? If you want to see scientific statistics on child abuse, look no further than the criminal cases. Those numbers reflect an accurate picture of child abuse in this country. They also show very clearly that we don’t need the existing system of child protection to cope with the problem of child abuse. Prevention can be handled in other, much more effective and compassionate ways that involve neither separating children from their families, nor drugging children or gambling with their safety. Programs that offer counseling, substance abuse treatment, job skills training, job placement, affordable housing, affordable daycare, continuing education, love, compassion and support would be a much better way of helping families in need than the violent, coercive methods currently being shoved down the throats of families. It’s worth a try. Anything is better than the existing system. If you really want to help people, offer help, don't order it.

[jholderbaum]

01:43 AM on 02/20/2012

The only way to ensure that cases are handled properly will be by changing the way child protection works. For decades, the vast majority of child welfare cases have been based on accusation and suspicion alone with no forensic evidence to back them up. This fact, along with the matching federal dollars provided to counties for every child taken, has led to a practice of something I call, “The harvesting of the children of the poor for profit.” Without appropriate and objective oversight, many of those working for child protection gradually shifted from protecting genuinely abused and orphaned children to taking children on speculation alone, a practice known as prevention. While prevention, or erring on the side of the child, may seem like a good idea in theory, the reality is that it has resulted in children being taken into protective custody, who never needed protection. These innocent children have been sexually abused, neglected, drugged, used in servitude, brutalized and murdered, in foster and adoptive homes that are unsafe because the system is overburdened and underfunded. Take away the overburdened part of the equation and the underfunding will correct itself. In fact, if we end the practice of taking children on the basis of prevention, or mere suspicion and accusation, and reserve child protection for genuine cases of abuse, or the rare case of children who have been orphaned, the system could be downsized to a fraction of what it is today.

[Colo Mom]

07:57 PM on 02/19/2012

He talks about Transparency!! That's a joke I have just last week asked for funding information on the ACF grant at the State level to no avail. I have requested information from Jefferson County on grant money and this is like pulling teeth the web site it scrambled when you do get to the information. I believe I share those correspondences with you.
This is a crisis situation and we need to stop ALL the grant money going into Department of Health and Human Services (with the exception of Medicare and Medicaid). Organize all the advocates along with the Governor to begin the reform. OR JUST SHUT IT DOWN…. Crimes are Crimes and we figure out the reform of how the Courts handle these issues.

http://irevolutiontree.wordpress.com/read-and-post-links-for-support-here/

[amaboss52]

01:45 PM on 02/18/2012

I hope Berry and Phillips suffer in prison for what they did to that beautiful little defenseless child. they should die the exact same way. I am a foster parent of a beautiful little boy, my avatar is a picture of him. I would lay down my life for him. The people that I have had contact with in DHS are doing a very good job of keeping track of him, checking up on him and me, to make sure I am taking care of him. I love him and hope to adopt him soon. Whoever is in charge of the child and lies about visits, don't do their jobs when informed of abuse should be charged with murder if a child dies while in their custody. That is the only way we will be able to stem the tide of children dying because these people were too lazy to do their jobs.

[althepal55]

12:18 PM on 02/18/2012

On 2/17/12
WSBTV.com Reports
35 Kids Killed in 75 Days in CPS-related care!

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/state-wont-answer-questions-about-caseloads-after-/nJG2P/

*In California, all of our corrupt and collusive FAMILY LAW/CPS INDUSTRIALISTS are more concerned about self-protection and circling their wagons, than the best interest of children and families...* so sad...

(from althepal55 temporarily on YouTube)
.

[amaboss52]

01:31 PM on 02/18/2012

They are all like that, more interested in protecting their own asses than doing their best for the children under their supervision. It is despicable and disgusting, these people need to be held accountable when a child is abused or dies while in their custody.

[nothingchanges]

10:23 AM on 02/18/2012

The plight of unwanted children is devastating.

Wouldn't preventing pregnancy's be more humane?

The problem with having strong "moral" beliefs, is that it's usually someone else that has to pay the price for them, and that price can be very, very, high.

Personal opinion, you are entitled to your own.

[amaboss52]

01:51 PM on 02/18/2012

That is another issue though, these are children that are already here. I agree that terminating an unwanted pregnancy is far better than letting a child be beaten, tortured and starved to death. But that doesn't solve the problem of children placed with people who don't care about them and will abuse them, while the caseworker and state look the other way. Hold these caseworkers, doctors, teachers and anyone else involved in the childs life accountable and watch them start to do a better job.

[1differentdrummer]

10:08 AM on 02/18/2012

Would you believe there are even more complications? Look at your county to see if they have a deal with a church, the way Jeffco has had. You might ask them the reason for it but don't expect an honest answer.

Would you believe HS employees get brownie points for adoptions instead of returning kids to blood relatives? A couple I know had a druggy son who should have lost his kid. Grandparents said they wanted her badly, spent thousands on travel etc. to be here to get their grandchild. Jeffco HS workers told them to wait until the court deal was over and then they could apply for her. They did that. The court deal gave the child to Jeffco and HS then turned the child over to strangers with no rights of visitation for the grandparents. They could apply all they wanted but it was a done deal. Absolutely true story, I've spent time with these people. Sad, very sad.

[amaboss52]

02:00 PM on 02/18/2012

I am a kinship foster parent. My foster baby is the 1/2 brother of my grandson. His mother and father prefer meth to parenting. They have been given numerous chances to turn their lives around and regain custody. To this day they make no effort to even visit him let alone buy him clothes or toys. I am hoping to adopt him, in this way he will have a safe, secure, loving home and if his parents ever decide to step up, they will be allowed to visit with him. The people I deal with at DHS have a good track record with him, they visit us monthly, make sure we have food, he has a warm bed in his own room and is nurtured and loved. I, so far am pleased with their efforts and am glad they visit us regularly. There is no excuse in the world for caseworkers and GAL's to fail in visitation, letting children fall through the cracks and end up dead. They should be held accountable for any child that dies, it is their responsibility to ensure the safety of the child. Reunification is the goal, but if the parents fail to clean up their act, adoption is the only answer. In my babies case they looked for a family member to take him and I decided to step up.

[aquarius2]

12:27 AM on 02/18/2012

It is now 44!! Talk about a broken, horrible system.

[amaboss52]

02:11 PM on 02/18/2012

And there are 50 of them. Every single state has the same exact problem. I think the main problem is letting the caseworkers who fail these kids off the hook. If they prosecuted them along with the abusers/murderers we'd see a change in the way they perform their duties. The caseworkers I'm involved with do a really good job for my foster baby. Some kids are not so lucky, their case workers are lazy, uncaring and stupid.

[aquarius2]

02:22 PM on 02/18/2012

I fully agree with you. In this latest case in Denver, it is not only the Social Workers but also the Commerce City Police who appeared to fail at doing their jobs. From all outward appearances, this latest child should have died.

[melissaj376]

10:29 PM on 02/17/2012

They also don't mention that in Colorado, each individual county has their own autonomous child welfare system. All a person has to do to escape CPS scrutiny is move a few towns away.

[Wake Up Call]

04:30 PM on 02/17/2012

THIS IS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN THAT AMERICANS ARE ALMOST NEVER SHOWN! For those of you who want to call Child Protective Services at the drop of a hat, consider that (a) the being removed from their home and his/her biological parents is already a SEVERE TRAUMA for any child other than the most severely abused, and (b) the home that the child is moved to is often at LEAST as bad, if not worse! This witch hunt in which good parents are crucified upon any investigation is NEVER reported by the media.

[mairs]

05:11 PM on 02/17/2012

The first example above is of a child who was given back to his drug addicted mother and then found dead under her trailer.

[vumbot]

09:00 AM on 02/18/2012

I dont think it's healthy for you to dissuade people from calling CPS if they see something that is questionable. Children deserve someone to be an advocate for them if there is even the slightest hint of wrongdoing going on. It's worth a look...they don't always have to be removed but they should be looked into. Yes the foster homes etc may be bad too but they're not all that way. The entire system needs to be reevaluated but to say someone shouldn't call...thats paying a huge disservice to a child who could potentially need someone to be the voice they dont yet have.

[amaboss52]

02:17 PM on 02/18/2012

Well said and exactly right. If you see it say it!

[jholderbaum]

01:54 AM on 02/20/2012

It's very easy to say that until it happens to you and then you'll see how CPS really works. Trust me, you wouldn't wish that upon your worst enemy. What we should be doing is reporting the crime of child abuse to the police. But, sadly, even our police have had to drink the grape kool-aid of CPS.

[1differentdrummer]

04:29 PM on 02/17/2012

The deal falls apart in the county departments of "human services", a misnomer. Jeffco took a guy to court on a trumped up charge and the magistrate told them to clean up their act. They got the guy in front of a second magistrate, a big no-no, who found him guilty of the exact same charge. He wasn't even where the event occurred and the county knew it. His kids were put into a foster home where there was actual neglect. He got his case back in front of the first magistrate who apologized for the county, dismissed the case and returned the kids. This was in WestWord.

[2083]

03:50 PM on 02/17/2012

Gee, and it only took the deaths of 43 children to figure out something was wrong.

[wolfsvssarah]

09:22 PM on 02/17/2012

Amazing huh, I wondered about that myself. Had it been dogs being murdered, it would have taken only 2. Don't get me wrong I love dogs, always have, but this country puts its children on the very bottom of importance. It's sickening.

[Bills Catz]

03:38 PM on 02/17/2012

Hold it right there. I'll be danged and sent to Mississipps before I'm ever going to go along with somebody named "HICKENLOOPER." Can't do it, no way. Couldn't even be in the same room with a Hickenlooper without acting up. Danged fool knows folks been laughing at him since grade school and ain't had enough sense to get that squared away, can't believe a word he says. Hicken, heh-heh, hee-hee looper! Aw hahahaha! AAH hahahaha! Nickelpooper! Chickenwhooper!

[amaboss52]

02:18 PM on 02/18/2012

Off topic and stupid!

[Bills Catz]

03:36 PM on 02/18/2012

Let you tell it, ama. Did you voted for Picklewhopper? Tell the truth!