Measuring a child’s wellbeing can be difficult, but often you “know it when you see it.” You see children boldly and confidently interacting on the playground and delighting in sharing newly developed skills. It’s when they are healthy, valued and thriving. Maltreatment is similarly hard to measure. Yes, there are cases of abuse and neglect […]
Office of Children and Families
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Rural Colorado struggles to find foster homes as new federal law seeks to keep more kids out of group settings
Finding foster homes for children is a challenge throughout Colorado, but in rural areas, the shortage is even more dire. In the San Luis Valley, a lone foster care coordinator this summer covered 3,000 square miles and six counties between the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains while awaiting a new hire. In those […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Politics and Government
With more child welfare caseworkers than ever, Colorado lawmakers want to know why some outcomes are getting worse
The bipartisan committee that writes Colorado’s budget wants an audit of every county child welfare department in the state, a rare request that came as lawmakers blasted the system for poor outcomes. What riled legislators was a $6.1 million budget request to add 100 more caseworkers across Colorado, the fifth phase of a multi-year plan […]