Task force proposes sweeping reforms to Colorado’s child abuse laws

A statewide task force on Friday called for a sweeping overhaul of Colorado’s system for reporting suspected child abuse and neglect, proposing myriad reforms aimed at clarifying the oft-misunderstood and sometimes misused process.

Colorado lawmakers created the task force in 2022 to examine the state’s mandatory reporting laws following a Denver Post investigation into the 2017 death of 7-year-old Olivia Gant, a long-term patient at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Before Olivia died, some of her caregivers at the hospital suspected Olivia’s mother may have been medically abusing her, but the hospital did not alert any outside authorities to their suspicions until after Olivia’s death, despite the state’s mandatory reporting laws, which require some professionals to “immediately” report suspected child abuse or neglect to state authorities.

Instead, the hospital investigated the concerns internally, through its own child protection team and in a series of ethics meetings, relying in part on false information provided by Olivia’s mother to conclude there was no reason to alert outside authorities to the potential abuse.

A doctor at the hospital eventually raised the alarm more than a year after Olivia died, when Olivia’s mother brought in Olivia’s sister for similar false medical concerns. In 2019, Olivia’s mother was charged with murder in Olivia’s death. She pleaded guilty to child abuse negligently resulting in death in 2022 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Children’s Hospital Colorado has denied wrongdoing, and in 2021 resolved a $25 million civil claim brought by Olivia’s family.

The task force, housed within the Office of the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman, issued its final 29-page report Friday after meeting regularly for two years.

The group of experts and stakeholders proposed several changes to the state’s mandatory reporting laws, including that professionals be required to report most suspected abuse within 24 hours — rather than the ill-defined “immediately” in current law.

The task force also said the law should be changed to clarify that mandatory reporters can’t delegate their duty to report to someone else who did not witness the abuse, and to clarify that while institutions — like hospitals or schools — can create their own policies on mandatory reporting, those policies must comply with state law, and institutional leadership cannot deter or impede a mandatory reporter from making a report.

Stephanie Villafuerte, Colorado’s child protection ombudsman, said the task force wanted to allow for institutional policies that encourage reporting — like allowing a school teacher to take break during the workday to make a mandatory report and creating a process for the teacher to request that break.

“The policies that the task force anticipated were those that really support the reporter, and give them the space or time to do so, but not to usurp their responsibility or their opinion about whether something should be reported or not,” Villafuerte said.

During Olivia’s care, Children’s Hospital Colorado had a policy in place requiring employees to bring child abuse concerns to the hospital’s internal child protection team so the team could decide whether to report the suspicions to outside agencies.

Caregivers there told investigators after Olivia’s death that the hospital’s team had told them they didn’t have enough information to report their concerns about Olivia to outside authorities.

Whether mandatory reporters must directly make their reports or can do so through third parties is ambiguous in current law, Villafuerte said. The task force aims to clear that up.

The report additionally recommended:

• Allowing a 72-hour window for professionals to report intimate partner violence or sex assault involving teens aged 15 or older, to better allow teenagers to engage in the process.
• Requiring regular, standardized training on mandatory reporting requirements for professionals, and allowing the state to withhold professional licenses if professionals fail to complete the training
• Removing victim advocates from the list of mandatory reporters to allow them to better build trust with victims of domestic violence, stalking and sex assault, or, alternatively, giving victim advocates 72 hours to report suspected child abuse or neglect in order to put a safety plan in place
• Giving mandated reporters basic information on the outcome of their reports
• Creating a uniform, statewide, online system for making mandated reports

The task force also broadly considered ways to reduce racial and socioeconomic disparities in mandatory reporting. The system has historically over-targeted children of color, sometimes leading to unwarranted abuse and neglect investigations that do more harm than good.

“The task force was trying so hard to balance child safety concerns and maintaining protections for children with the disproportionate impacts that these laws have on communities of color and disabled communities,” Villafuerte said. “And also realizing that the child abuse hotline may not be the best way to help families who are truly in need of services.”

The state’s mandatory reporting system currently acts as a catch-all for all types of concerns about child welfare, the task force found, overburdening the system with cases that do not actually involve child abuse or neglect but may involve circumstances like poverty or homelessness.

The group proposed changing state law to specifically denote that a family’s poverty alone should not trigger a report of abuse or neglect, even if a child is experiencing homelessness or has inadequate clothing or food. The task force recommended creating a new statewide phone line that would connect callers to local resources aimed at family support in such situations.