On a typical day in Colorado, there are about 600 homeless children and 262 homeless young adults ages 18 to 24
foster care
Posted inSocial Services
Many Colorado foster kids don’t get behavioral health screenings as fast as they should
Data recently reviewed by state lawmakers reinforces findings from a Colorado Sun investigation that found 13% of adoptions of foster children have failed in the last decade — mainly due to behavioral issues
Posted inSun Investigation
Colorado funds only one agency to help families and adopted kids with their trauma-filled past. And its budget just got slashed.
No family who has received trauma-informed coaching by Raise the Future has reported a disrupted adoption, according to the agency and the state.
Posted inSun Investigation
The same adopted child in Colorado could get $1,000 of monthly subsidies, or none. The deciding factor? Where they live.
Colorado is among just a handful of states where adoption assistance rates are set entirely by counties. The state is making reforms.
Posted inSun Investigation
Failed twice: Colorado foster kids who are adopted often end up back in the child welfare system
More than 1,000 children who were adopted from foster care in Colorado in the past decade ended up back in the system.
Posted inSocial Services
How do you stop foster kids from running away? A Colorado panel is trying to find out.
The panel created and funded by the state legislature has two years to find ways to decrease the large number of troubled kids who run away from foster care and treatment centers
Posted inSocial Services
Most young teens in Colorado’s foster care system don’t know about birth control, new study finds
About 65% of eighth and ninth graders interviewed in the Denver area said they were not educated about birth control
Posted inNews, Social Services
Former foster kids started a new Colorado nonprofit to help young people. TikTok is taking it nationwide.
One young woman who aged out of foster care was about to have her phone service cut off for not paying the bill. A teenage boy living in a homeless shelter while waiting for a foster placement reached out because he was lonely and hungry. And a mother who was fighting to get her children […]
Posted inNews
The number of LGBTQ foster kids is on the rise, but does Colorado have enough accepting homes?
Diamond Kobylinski spent almost his entire childhood in foster homes, from age 2 to 17. The worst, though, was when one set of foster parents changed their mind about adopting him after Kobylinski blurted out during an argument that he was gay. It was the first time Kobylinski had ever said the words out loud. […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government, Social Services
Bill aims to prevent runaways, improve mental health results for Colorado foster youth at residential centers
Colorado would have to create new standards for residential centers that house foster children as well as examine how best to prevent kids from running away from those centers under a new legislative proposal. The bill follows high-profile scrutiny of the 24/7 residential centers, including a joint Colorado Sun/9News investigation that found that children and […]