Colorado Joins Handful of States That Publicize Child Abuse Data

Colorado has created a website that provides the public with child-protection and child-abuse data for each county, making the state one of four in the nation to make such information accessible to the public.

 

The creation of the website is one part of a series of reforms in Colorado after news reports on problems with the state's child-protection system by The Denver Post and 9News.

 

"At the end of the day, the goal is to be transparent with the public and to keep our families safe and healthy," said Julie Krow, the director of the Office of Youth and Families in the Colorado Department of Human Services. "This is something we can't do alone. We need our community to help us."

 

California, Arizona and Iowa are the other states with similar websites available to the public.

 

Colorado's website, cdhsdatamatters.org, provides county-level data on child-abuse referrals, instances of child abuse and how many children are reunified with their families after being placed in foster care. Other tracked information includes instances when children are removed from troubled families, caseworker visitation rates, child fatalities, types of maltreatment, and timeliness of responses to allegations of abuse.