Kids who run from residential placements are in “fight, flight or freeze” mode, hoping to find connection and familiarity, according to a study for Colorado’s task force to prevent runaways
Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman
Posted inHealth
Does mandatory reporting of child abuse help or hurt? A Colorado task force is taking a second look.
A newly launched state task force is only the second in the nation to look closely at reforming policies that have gone unchallenged for decades.
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s child protection ombudsman announces new program to review child deaths
The death of a 12-year-old boy who was struck by a vehicle after he ran away from a youth treatment center will be the first child fatality reviewed under a new system announced Thursday by the state’s child protection ombudsman. Ombudsman Stephanie Villafuerte said she intends to fill the gap left by other child fatality […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
For incarcerated youth in Colorado, the coronavirus pandemic isn’t over yet
It was late April and Renee sounded drained and worried. She hadn’t hugged her son or seen his face without a screen pixelating his features since the COVID-19 pandemic began in Colorado more than a year earlier. “It’s heartbreaking,” she said over Zoom. “That is something a parent could never describe. It’s 24/7 of a […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: A Colorado judge’s censure demonstrates how racial bias permeates our child protection system
For the past year, parents and family members complained that a judge in Arapahoe County was biased against them because they were Black. I know this because they complained to my office – the Office of Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman. I would learn in time that the judge in question was entrusted with overseeing the […]
Posted inSun Investigation
Families kept in the dark about children’s safety in Colorado’s child welfare system
Colorado’s child fatality review team did not investigate the death of a 12-year-old boy who ran away from a residential center. State officials refuse to release numbers of abuse allegations.
Posted inSun Investigation
The deadly consequences when kids run away from Colorado residential treatment centers
In the places of last resort for Colorado’s most troubled kids, the doors are not locked. And the children run. They scale fences and slip through gates. They bolt from staff, who are not allowed to block or restrain them, and they roam city streets for hours or sometimes days. Children and teens run away […]