Child Welfare System Tools

Current law requires mandatory reporters to include certain information when reporting child abuse or neglect to the mandatory reporter's county department, local law enforcement, or through the statewide child abuse reporting hotline system (hotline system). The act requires a mandatory reporter to report any evidence of known domestic violence or intimate partner violence in the child's home, including any evidence of previous cases of known domestic violence or intimate partner violence in the child's home.

The act requires the state department of human services (state department) to develop and implement a consistent screening process for a county department to follow, when possible, in responding to a report or inquiry to the hotline system. The screening process must include questions about domestic violence or intimate partner violence. The state department is required to develop and implement a disclosure procedure that notifies callers to the hotline system that calls are recorded.

The act requires the state department to review the screening process used by county departments and hotline system operators to:

• Determine race; ethnicity; disability status; LGBTQ identity, if applicable; and English proficiency in a screening report and recommend a process for improving the accuracy of determining the demographic information, which must include opportunities to update the TRAILS statewide case management system;
• Understand the types of questions asked during the screening process to determine demographic information and recommend questions that reflect best practices and cultural competency; and
• Understand the sequence of questions asked during a screening process to determine demographic information and recommend a sequence of questions that better reflects best practices.

The state department shall recommend and implement a screening process procedure to determine demographic information that reflects best practices and cultural competencies.

No later than January 15, 2025, the office of the child protection ombudsman (ombudsman) shall select a third-party evaluator to conduct an audit on the Colorado family risk assessment (risk assessment) and the Colorado family safety assessment (safety assessment). In conducting an audit of the risk assessment, the third-party evaluator shall:

• Identify tools and resources to ensure the risk assessment is carried out consistently;
• Identify gaps and solutions to enable caseworkers to complete the risk assessment in real time while in the field;
• Examine the impacts of geography when using the risk assessment;
• Examine the impacts of race and ethnicity when using the risk assessment and how they affect communities that are over-represented in the child welfare system;
• Evaluate and recommend best practices for sharing the risk assessment with families, legal professionals, and the judicial branch;
• Evaluate and recommend best practices for training on the risk assessment; and
• Examine the risk assessment for domestic violence or intimate partner violence and recommend best practices.

In conducting an audit of the safety assessment, the third-party evaluator shall:

• Examine the same issues set forth for the risk assessment;
• Study the inter-rater reliability of the safety assessment; and
• Study the required documentation for the planning and removal of a child from the child's primary caregiver.

The third-party evaluator shall create a report summarizing the results of the audit. On or before March 1, 2026, the ombudsman is required to submit the audit report to the house of representatives public and behavioral health and human services committee and the senate health and human services committee, or their successor committees, the speaker of the house of representatives, the minority leader of the house of representatives, the president of the senate, and the minority leader of the senate.

The act appropriates $109,392 from the general fund to the judicial department for use by the ombudsman to implement this act.

APPROVED by Governor May 28, 2024

EFFECTIVE May 28, 2024
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)