(COLORADO SPRINGS) — A statewide task force created to reform Colorado’s mandatory reporting laws is now asking lawmakers to change the state’s definition of criminal child abuse and neglect.
The group is comprised of 33 different members from all different backgrounds and released its findings in a 12-page report.
The Mandatory Reporting Task Force Interim Report was released by the Office of the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman, providing legislators, stakeholders, and the public with an overview of the task force’s discussions and findings during its first year of operation. The task force was created in 2022 by the Colorado General Assembly with House Bill 22-1240.
The task force created to reform Colorado’s mandatory reporting laws cannot do so without first asking lawmakers to change the state’s definition of criminal child abuse and neglect.
“Some of those individuals are people who have lived experience,” said Stephanie Villafuerte, Child Protection Ombudsman. “In other words, people who have been impacted or been in the child welfare system, others are professionals who handle those child abuse calls as they come in. We have medical doctors, teachers, nurses, all of those individuals who are required to report child abuse and so having that many people in the room gives us a robust perspective about how this law currently functions and how it can function better in the future.”
During the task force’s first year, discussions centered around the disproportionate impact of mandatory reporting on specific communities and whether Colorado’s law is effective in serving families and keeping children safe.
The group plans to meet for 11 hours in January and February to create recommendations for a change in the state’s child abuse law. The task force noted that the laws around child abuse in some states are more defined than Colorado’s and are better designed to ensure child abuse reporting laws don’t disproportionately impact individuals of color or families within disabled communities.
“There are about 15 states right now that have acknowledged that poverty, homelessness, or even mental health should not be conflated with being a child abuse act,” Villafuerte explained. “So as you can see, this is still a relatively new phenomenon for this field at some level and Colorado is certainly in line for the infancy of this policy development right now.”
The task force wants to bring Colorado to the top of the list when it comes to addressing child abuse and neglect and says that starts with training.
“The mandatory reporters that we have been speaking with over 12 months have a deep desire to help families and I think I would say they have been frustrated at the lack of training and resources that have been available for them to get people help versus reporting them to a child abuse hotline,” Villafuerte said.
The Colorado Department of Human Services reports that calls to the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline, 844-CO-4-KIDS (844-264-5437) remained stable from 2021 to 2022 after a significant drop in 2020. Calls to the hotline increased 0.3% in 2022. The state department believes this slight growth in calls comes on the heels of a sustained public awareness campaign.
While there was only a slight increase in calls to the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline, the Child Protection Ombudsman tells FOX21 they are currently working on developing what they are calling a ‘warm’ hotline or an alternative line to better assist reports of poverty, homelessness, and mental health.
