At first, the child protection worker’s supervisor noticed missing notes in a handful of cases of alleged abuse and neglect. Then more cases looked suspicious, as if the caseworker’s details about checking on children and their families weren’t actually true. After an outside team — a crew of 15 caseworkers from nine counties — was […]
child abuse and neglect
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Child abuse reports are down, but is abuse just going unseen during the pandemic?
Among the many things that keep me awake at night is how our family will manage the coming start of the school year. Like so many families across Colorado, my wife and I are stuck in limbo. We’re wondering what the school year will look like for our children – remote, in-person or hybrid – and […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, Technology
In rural Crowley County, a safe return to in-person school is really the only option
What is distancing learning like without a laptop? Without internet? Without parents at home? Without a home at all? This spring, remote education brought on by the coronavirus pandemic raised difficult questions about equity and introduced unprecedented challenges for school districts across Colorado. These challenges hit Crowley County — a small, rural community in the […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s new strategy to prevent child sexual abuse zeroes in on every ZIP code
A new strategy to prevent sexual abuse of children across Colorado is all about math. The goal: 5% of the adult population in every ZIP code should know exactly how to respond if a child told them they were abused, and they should know how to cut down on the likelihood that abusers have access […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: An open letter to child protection and human services staff everywhere
Thank you for coming to work today. Like many of us, you woke up this week and saw a tragedy unfolding. The world as we know it altered – off course – leaving thousands of people without basic food, shelter and health care. Like many of us you were scared. But you showed up anyway […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Let’s celebrate those running toward suffering in our coronavirus world
I tend to be drawn by those who turn, often running, toward those who are suffering. There is something that touches us deeply when we see it, and we feel their strength when we witness their courage. I think of groups like Team Rubicon, military veterans mobilizing to help communities throughout Colorado and worldwide recover […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News, Politics and Government
Despite reforms, the number of children dying of abuse and neglect in Colorado hasn’t subsided
In the past five years, 146 children died in Colorado from abuse or neglect. You haven’t heard about almost any of them. The children are listed — not by name but by case number — on spreadsheets published online under Colorado law by the state human services department. Only a few of their deaths made […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: No Colorado child should be forced to move between 17 homes to heal
Child welfare is undergoing a long-overdue overhaul. The Family First Prevention Services Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in February 2018 and is welcomed by most in child welfare. Family First is set to be implemented in Colorado some time in 2020 and is premised on the long-held belief that children have […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Should letting your kid play outside be illegal?
What does it take to get a Democrat and a Republican to co-sponsor a bill? A little joy and a little outrage. Joy at finding an issue we could work on together — we’ve been friends for years. Outrage at some of the stories we’ve heard from friends and constituents, moms and dads who simply […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
Most money spent in the child welfare system comes after kids are in foster care. What if that’s backwards?
In the Douglas County suburbs, one type of call to the child abuse hotline is more likely to end up with a kid in foster care than any other: “Beyond Control of Parents.” The term means a child or teenager is having such severe mental health and behavioral issues that they’ve become a problem at […]