A child welfare caseworker in Larimer County is facing 99 criminal counts after authorities say she failed to check on children who were the subject of abuse and neglect reports and then filed false paperwork claiming she did.
The case is similar to one in 2020, when investigators found at least 50 child abuse reports in Moffat County that contained fake details, all written by a caseworker who fabricated stories about checking on children. In that case, authorities said Hester Renee Nelms even described children’s bedrooms that she had never actually visited and made up illnesses that parents did not have.
And in Denver in 2015, a child protection worker lied in her paperwork to make it look like she had checked on a newborn baby born with marijuana in her system. Two months later, the baby was killed by her mother.
It’s rare that a caseworker hired to protect children is accused of causing harm, considering Colorado has hundreds of child welfare workers in 64 counties statewide. But each time it happens, there are far-reaching effects because of the number of families every caseworker is responsible for checking on over months or even years.
And Colorado has not strengthened laws that could protect families who are the victims when caseworkers falsify records.
There is no law that states that Colorado can strip a child protection employee of their certification, meaning that caseworkers who are fired from one county after bad casework can get hired in another. There is also no regulation that requires county human services departments to inform the state or the families involved if it has discovered that a caseworker lied about checking on children or committed other misconduct.
This is despite the fact that the Office of the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman asked state policymakers to strengthen the laws seven years ago and again last summer.
“The impact of this gap is that, unless an employee is criminally charged, there is no way to know whether a child welfare employee has violated regulations or ethical standards,” Ombudsman Stephanie Villafuerte wrote in an issue brief in June. “As such, their certification to work with children remains in place and they are able to move from county to county undetected.”
Draft legislation that called for caseworker reform was considered this summer by a legislative committee on child welfare, which included 11 lawmakers who studied child protection issues when the legislature was out of session. But the bill was not selected to move forward, meaning it’s unlikely it will get introduced in the legislative session that began this week.
In its review, the ombudsman’s office looked at four criminal cases involving child welfare workers accused of falsifying paperwork. In one case, the worker accused of fabricating abuse reports was hired by another county before criminal charges were filed, leading to questions about how often that occurs.
Caseworkers receive certification through the Colorado Child Welfare Training Academy, which workers from across the state can attend virtually. Counties can terminate or reprimand an employee accused of misconduct, the ombudsman’s office said, but “they have no mechanism to take adverse action against the certification of a child welfare employee.”
The state has no standard policy for investigating caseworker misconduct, which means that counties handle it a variety of different ways. Counties are not required to notify families if the caseworker looking into allegations against them is fired for unethical or criminal casework.
“The impacts of these cases permeate through the entire system and erode the public’s trust in the very individuals charged with keeping them safe,” the ombudsman’s office wrote, calling on the state to also create a public website that would show the certification status of child welfare caseworkers.
Villafuerte said Wednesday that her office raised the same concerns again last month after hearing about problems in Washington County.
“Repeatedly, this agency has pointed to the lack of oversight that takes place when situations like this arise,” the ombudsman told The Colorado Sun on Wednesday via email. “Without these standard mechanisms, how can we be sure that the child welfare system — which makes crucially important decisions in the trajectory of children’s lives — is held accountable?”
Larimer County families want more cases reviewed
Last month’s criminal charges against a Larimer County caseworker have renewed calls for reform from other advocates as well.
Sandra Spraker, of Wellington, is accused of 99 criminal counts related to several months of casework, including 29 allegations of forgery and 10 counts of attempting to influence a public servant. Authorities said she lied about interviewing at least 10 families and had not checked on children who might have been in danger.
Spraker, 45, completed her caseworker training in October 2022, and in the summer 2023, her supervisors began reviewing her cases because they were concerned about her work. She was placed on leave in September as an investigation continued, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Fort Collins.
Larimer County Human Services Director Heather O’Hayre did not return a request for comment from The Sun but said in a news release that the problems were uncovered thanks to “internal processes and the hard work of our managers.” This is the first time this has happened in the county, which has more than 150 caseworkers, she said.
“We are continuing to tighten our processes and procedures to make sure this does not happen again,” she said.
Spraker, who was arrested Dec. 29, was released from the Larimer County Jail on a $10,000 bond as she awaits court proceedings. Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Rosemary Van Gorder, a Fort Collins parent advocate who helps families trying to keep their children, questioned why it took several months to discover problems with Spraker’s work, which should have occurred under the purview of a supervisor.
Families who worked with Spraker had been complaining to the department about her for months, as did Van Gorder on their behalf, she said. And after Spraker was put on leave and criminal charges were filed, many families who dealt with her were not notified by the county, Van Gorder said.
“The safeguards you claim to have in place, they didn’t work that well,” Van Gorder wrote in a letter to Larimer County. “There were no admissions, apologies or remedies offered to the families. Families suffered as a result of egregious case mishandlings.”
Van Gorder wants a review of every case Spraker handled. She asked the department not to “whitewash the extent of the problem or the harm done.”
The Colorado Department of Human Services, which includes the child welfare division, said the state “provides tailored support” to counties when there are allegations of staff misconduct. The support “prioritizes and ensures the safety and well-being of the children and families we serve above all else,” department spokesperson Jordan Saenz said in an email.
“We have seen county departments refer these types of violations to local law enforcement and district attorneys, which is the appropriate action to take,” she said.
In Moffat County, Nelms was charged with fraud after being under investigation for more than a year. A team of 15 caseworkers from across Colorado set up operations in 2020 to re-investigate more than 80 reports of child abuse and neglect. Numerous families, including some who spoke to The Colorado Sun, said that no caseworker ever came to check on their children — despite detailed reports in the state’s child welfare database that those visits had occurred.
The case is still unresolved, according to court records.
Rotchana Madera, the Denver caseworker who lied about checking on the newborn baby who was later beaten to death, was sentenced to two years of probation. She pleaded guilty to felony forgery and official misconduct.
Colorado is short by 343 caseworkers, according to a recent workload study from the state human services department.