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