Research cont...

As my search continues I was able to find some more solid answers to my questions. I started with reaching out to the Child protection department in my county. I was able to speak to a caseworker in the county she was a great help and gave me great answers.

Her name was Amber (last name unknown) she has been working for the department for over 6 years and was willing to answer any questions she could. I started our conversation by telling her that I'm a collage student and I'm doing a blog and research on Child abuse and why some cases get assigned and some do not. She was bale to explain to me that in the department there are certain steps that the state will take when a call of child abuse or neglect is called in. The phone operators will get as much information on the accusation as possible. (They call them accusation because that's exactly what they are till the are investigated and founded.) 
 
The operators will asking questions like:
Did you see this happen?
Are their any weapons in the home, or do the parents have any?
Is there drug use in the home or around the children?
What exactly did you see or hear?
How do you know these children and/or family?
What are the name of each child and how do you spell them?
What are ages of each child?
What are their birth dates?
What are the ages of the guardians or the person being accused?
What is their address and what is their phone #.
Where do they work?
On a scale of 1-10 1 being very worried the children are in danger and 10 being not worried at all what would you rate the children's safety?
and any other questions that they feel might help with the case.

The operator will ask for your name and number however it is not required that you give it. If you chose not to leave your name and number then you will not be able to call back and check on the case, but if you do leave this information you can call back and check on the action of the case. 
They make sure you know that they will not release the name of the accuser, but warn you that most of the time people can put it together by the accusations.
She then said that after the report has been made it will go before a panel and be determined if the report needs to be assigned to a case worker for investigation or not.
I asked How they determine that? Her answer was each case is different but they will look at many different thing when determining the placement of the case like:

the history of the family and/or is there is any. 
The seriousness of the accusation.
If  the family is already receiving support and etc by the state and etc.

I told her that I have worked in the childcare field for many years and feel like some cases are address and some are not. Some that I feel should be. Her suggestion in that case is to continue to call and report. The more reports the more likely the case will be looked into. She said simply but carefully, "there are so many reports made on a daily basis looking into everyone right away is not possible. That's why they will review and evaluate every case and it's extremity. They will follow up on other case that may not be assigned right away when they can."

Castaneda,Mindi.Personal Interview.6 Nov.2013

 Amber also gave me a great reference to the Larimer county website to get more great information on the topic. 

In this site it confirmed a lot of the information Amber had already shared with me. It talks about the different type of abuse physical, emotional abuse ,sexual abuse and neglect. It goes over the steps taken when a report is assigned and investigated like Amber mentioned. It also has information on some services that maybe set up to keep children safe like mediation, Family therapy, protective daycare,counseling out of home placement and ect.The site also goes over the hearing and proceedings it will take to get the child back in the family home if the child is removed.

"Child Protection."Larimer County.Co, Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

I want to shear a recent case in the Denver area that happened just last month. I chose to do this to show an example of how serious and dangerous cases can sometimes be unseen and  slip through the cracks. This is the case  many of you seen on the news in that month about the 4 children that had be removed from their home on September 30th. They lived with their parents Lorinda Bailey and Wayne Sperling in Denver. This was not the first run in with child protection services and the law for Lorinda and Wayne. The couple had 3 children removed from their home by the state back in 2006. The 4 children had been removed from their home due to extreme filthy living conditions, Being non verbal (extreme development delay) and other disturbing reasons. The 3 children that had been taken away have been adopted by other families. The four children that have recently been taken from the home future is unknown at this time.  As disturbing as this is the question remains how do parents like this slip between the cracks after already being in the sight of the state. Neighbors clam to have made reports several time of unbearably living conditions. So why did it take state took so long to look in to this case?
"Caseworker Tried to Prevent Denver Couple from Keeping More Children." - The Denver Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

The first two site I used, showed the process of the state when looking in to a case of child abuse. The last sight I used shows that their are cases that as still being over looked when there is really no reason for it. However in my research I can see that the state has so many cases that need to be looked in to, and the load is over whelming. The state may not be able to explain when cases like the one mentioned above get missed but there is case after case of ignored cases in our state alone.Sadly the lack of protection can sometimes lead to the death of a child.


Since 2007, 175 children in Colorado have died of abuse and neglect - beaten, starved, suffocated and burned. Deepening the tragedy is that the families or caregivers of 72 of them were known to caseworkers whose job was to protect them. 

Read more: Abused children's cries for help were ignored - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/failedtodeath/ci_21957329/abused-childrens-cries-help-were-ignored#ixzz2k1ae70zy
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
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Research

I was shocked on the little amount of information that I could find online about child abuse, neglect laws, rules and regulations for the State of Colorado. All the sites that are a creditable source only have  limited information.The reach I have come across have come from inside the library and state records.

The first site I wanted to share is, The Colorado Department of Human Services. It has a variety of information regarding human services, including childcare and the rules and regulation for that specific type of business.  It also shows reviews and data of Colorado businesses, forms and other information concerning childcare. The information I found which is a very limited amount relates to my topic which is Child vs. Sate. If you look at the The State of Colorado website and click on the "Child Welfare" tab it explains there mission, philosophy, guidelines and goals.

Philosophy-

Child Welfare services goal is to strengthen the ability of a family to protect and care for their own children and to minimize harm to children, youth, and ensure timely permanency planning.  Services are aimed at stabilizing the family and strengthening the family’s capacity to care for their children. If safety is not possible within the family than services will be focused to place a child in a stable, permanent home as quickly as possible.

Their philosophy is to ensure the safety of the children first by making sure they are in safe environment and surroundings but what do they really consider a safe and unstable home? 

  Guiding principles-

• "Children and youth shall have the right to be raised by their families or origin. Families have the responsibility to raise and nurture their own children. Reasonable efforts shall be made to maintain the family unit through the provision of in-home services."

• "Placement shall be considered when there is evidence that leaving the child in the home would jeopardize the safety of the child or community. Reasonable efforts shall be made to reunite the family as soon as possible if removal is necessary. When reunification is not possible, adoption and other permanency options shall be aggressively and quickly pursued."
• "Appropriate and culturally competent services shall be provided to families, children ad youth in their own homes and in out of home placement."
• "Children and youth who have been removed from the care of their parents shall have the right to have extended family members considered as placement resources, to be placed in a safe environment, not to be moved indiscriminately from one placement to another, and to have the assurance of a permanent family."
• "Consideration of the child’s age, race, ethnicity, culture, language, religion, and special needs shall guide the choice of out of home and adoptive placements."
• "Case planning shall involve the family so that relevant services can be provided to promote rehabilitation and reunification."
• "Child Welfare Services shall be provided in collaboration with other community agencies on behalf of children, youth and families."
• "Financial and programmatic accountability will be stressed using managed care principals to reinforce that children and their families received all required services."
• "Respect and build on staff’s strengths so that their expertise can be directed toward those assignments, which will benefit the Division’s mission in such areas as technical assistance, consultation, and training others."

The considerations are also fair and the main point is that the state will try to make every effort to  keep children in safe home and make every effort to keep children with family. The state also tries to help the family by giving them resources and support to stay on track and create a stable loving  environment for their children.  

 In this website you can also find the process of making a complaint. If there is suspected child abuse or neglect or any other concerns the state will review it and determine if the case will be address and investigated.
I would also like to point out this site will also provide a list of human service offices by county. This would be a great resource in the event that a report needs to be made this would be helpful to report to the correct office so the report can be reviewed in a timely manner.

I chose to start my research here because this as a person that is in the childcare field this is a website that I refer to often. This is the site that human services will direct you to if you have any questions regarding child abuse. This is the official site for Child services in Colorado therefore I feel like this is an important website to refer to concerning child abuse. 

    "New Training for Our Boards, Commissions, and Councils." Colorado Department of Human Services. N.p., 01 Jan. 2013. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.

I feel like explaining and clarifying the definitions of child abuse is important to understand the guidelines and types of child abuse. There are six defined types of child abuse mentioned in this website.
I found this site in a educational paper sent to me by the state of Colorado for my childcare business. The six types of abuse are as follows. 
1. Physical abuse- When a child exhibits any type of unexplainable bruising, fractures of any bones, bleeding or beatings that can result in injury or unexplained death. Physical abuse is any type of violent physical actions on a child or adult.  

2. Sexual abuse- Sexual abuse is when sexual intercourse occures including but not limited too;  masturbation, oral sex, penetration of the vagina or rectum by any object and etc.


3. Emotional/mental abuse- Emotional/mental abuse is belittlement, bulling and emotionally disturbing the mental state of the child. 

4. Neglect- Neglect of a child is when the parents/guardians fail to provide basic needs including but not limited to medical care, proper and weather appropriate clothing, shoes, food, shelter, stable liviing conditions and etc.

5. Abandonment- When the parents leaves the child for long periods of time or permanently.

6. Sexual exploitation- Sadly this is the newest type of abuse being used in our World. With the use of the internet and social networking many children are being exploded on the internet. This is when pictures or video of the child being naked of sexually abuse are being shared on the internet. Usually for sexual pleasures by others. 

I feel like understanding the types of abuse is important to identify real child abuse. However now that we have identified the types of abuse can we explain why the state chooses different actions for why they will take action on one case but not another.  I hope to understand and get more insight to this as  my reasearch continues.

"Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect Colorado." Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect Colorado. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.
 

I wanted to shear this map to show the abuse cases from state to state and the amount of abuse cases that had resulted in death. This data was collected in 2011.

"Map: State-by-state Data on Physical Child Abuse and per Capita Death Rates from Child Abuse." Reno Gazette-Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013

 

Image analysis

My image represents Child VS State. Based from state to state the laws and regulations of child abuse and regulations of reporting vary. I will be focusing on our state, the state of Colorado. So I chose to pick a picture of a young child sitting at a table looking like he feels hopeless, worried and confused. As many of you can image child abuse would make a child feel exactly like that. They feel hopeless because it is something that the child has to live in or with till help is received. They would feel worried because the unknown and anxiety of the next abuse or the next meal. They would feel confused wondering when will help come, what have they done to deserve this?  These are only a feel of the feeling a child would feel.  Each case would be different and vary in severity.

Like I mentioned above in my research and blog I will be focusing on the State of Colorado. I will be focusing on the Colorado child abuse laws and regulations. Also Colorado child abuse cases. Many states are different so what is legal in Colorado may not be legal in other states and Vice versa. The one issue that is big right now in the legalization of marijuana. Before it was illegal to have or use the drug when children were around. Now with the change of the Colorado marijuana laws it will affect the way the state will take action if children are exposed or in the same area of the drug. So many states are different when it comes to what they view as child abuse and neglect.   

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