Child welfare reform effort launched

Group meets to begin creating an independent monitor to address complaints

Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer

Thursday, June 24, 2010

A work group to address gaps in the state’s child welfare system met for the first time yesterday with the ultimate goal of making recommendations to create an independent monitor’s office that will investigate complaints concerning lapses in the system.

Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, pushed for creation of the ombudsman office following the deaths of 35 children over the past three years who “slipped through the cracks” of the state’s child protection system. Senate Bill 171 created what is being called an “independent advocate” to bring accountability to the system and address weaknesses.

A work group met yesterday with the intention of making recommendations to the Department of Human Services on not only how to reform the state’s child welfare system, but also on how to create the ombudsman office.

“The creation of a child protection ombudsman will provide the necessary oversight and accountability to ensure every child in Colorado is protected and that cases of abuse and neglect are acted upon quickly and fairly,” Newell said in a statement yesterday following the morning session.

The program will be run through a nonprofit specializing in the field. The work group has 90 days to develop a plan, and then if funding is in place, a request for proposal will be released 30 days after that to find the nonprofit to run the program.

Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said the program will operate similar to the state’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. The Denver-based Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People operates that program through a contract.

SB 171 is the product of one of 29 recommendations made by the Child Welfare Action Committee, which was formed in April 2008 by an executive order from the governor.

Several high-profile cases raised caution flags over the past three years.

One case was 3-year-old Neveah Gallegos, who was suffocated, placed in a garbage bag and then buried in her pink princess tennis shoes underneath a tree stump and debris in a Denver ravine. Critics said it was unacceptable that the case slipped past the welfare system’s radar, especially considering the mother’s boyfriend was a registered sex offender, and that little Neveah had been treated at an emergency room for vaginal bleeding.

Seven-year-old Chandler Grafner was another child to slip through the cracks. He weighed only 34 pounds when he was found dead. Grafner’s biological parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against child-welfare agencies in Denver and Jefferson counties. The suit claimed that the Department of Human Services in Jefferson County failed to adequately investigate whether Grafner’s foster parents were fit to supply a foster home. The suit went on to claim that child-welfare agencies in both counties then failed to keep Grafner safe while living in the foster home. There were even reports at the time that surfaced from Grafner’s school indicating abuse.

McDonough said the hope is that the ombudsman will offer concerned citizens an independent outlet to file their complaints.

“What the program is designed to do is to give people involved in the child welfare system Ń be they mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect, or children in families involved in the system Ń a place to go when they feel their case is not being handled appropriately by the county department involved, and to be able to act independently of the Colorado Department of Human Services, as well as the county department of human services in cases where a complaint has been brought forward about how a case is handled in a county,” said McDonough.

The ombudsman’s office will be charged with reviewing complaints, making recommendations and filing an annual report concerning improvements to the system. An aspect of community outreach and education will also be tied to the job.

Twenty-nine other states have created a similar program.

Newell said yesterday that there is still much work to be done in reforming the state’s child welfare system.

“The passage of SB 171 was a major victory for Colorado children, but we must continue to work together in order to ensure no child in Colorado who is ever a victim of abuse and neglect is allowed to fall through the cracks,” she said.

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