Colorado's Child Welfare System Interim Study Committee.
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 bill requires a mandatory reporter to report any evidence of known or suspected domestic violence in the child's home, including any evidence of previous cases of known or suspected domestic violence in the child's home. The bill 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. The state department is required to develop and implement a disclosure procedure that notifies callers to the hotline system that calls are recorded.
The state department is also required to review the screening
process used by county departments and hotline system operators to:
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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;
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Understand the types of questions asked during the screening process to determine demographic information; and
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Understand the sequence of questions asked during a screening process to determine demographic information.
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 safety assessment and the Colorado family risk assessment. 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.
