WASHINGTON COUNTY, Colo. — Six months after questions were raised about fairness and bias in Washington County's child welfare services, the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) has finished a review of the department.
In June, Colorado’s child protection ombudsman, Stephanie Villafuerte, asked the department to review all the child welfare cases in Washington County between 2018 and 2022. This was after Villafuerte said her department received eight complaints that involved six families and 10 children.
CDHS said that while they did find some violations of policy, they "did not find in its review a pattern of decision-making or practice indicative of systematic bias against parents."
Villafuerte said she is concerned about the length of time it took for the Colorado Department of Human Services to respond.
"There needs to be a sense of urgency around these issues,” Villafuerte said.
9NEWS began reporting on Washington County Department of Human Services in March, when a couple said that it took years of fighting to get their son returned to them.
Alicia Johansen and Fred Thornton lost custody of their son Carter when he was born due to drug use.
Johansen and Thornton got clean and followed a treatment plan from the court that included staying sober, obtaining stable employment and attending scheduled visitations with Carter. It still took three years, six months and 17 days for Carter to be returned to his parent's care.
"You only have to look at a child, a child that, you know, to see how much they change, how much they grow, how much they develop in three months, six months, nine months," Villafuerte said. "And then imagine that your child isn't in your care for three and a half years. That's time lost for parents."
“We operated for so long under the assumption that if we just did as we were told, everything would be fine,” Johansen said.
They were one of the six families that filed a complaint with Villafuerte.
When Villafuerte's office reviewed the six cases, it identified 64 potential violations of state regulation and law. These include failure to assess child safety, failure to communicate with parents and failure to keep children with family when possible.
The Colorado Department of Human Services reviewed all 64 allegations and agreed that Washington County had violated policy 43 times, but that it "has not identified the need for corrective action or further review related to systematic bias in casework."
> The document below is Colorado Department of Human Services' response to the complains in one of the six cases:
The department said in a statement that over the past six months, it investigated the claims, provided training, conducted multiple site visits and did not "identify any pervasive practice issues."
Villafuerte said she disagrees.
“Parents were not being treated respectfully," she said. "They were not being treated professionally, and in many instances they weren't being given the services they needed to to reunite with their children."
She also said that she is concerned about the way the state conducted this internal investigation.
“They did not interview a single parent, family member, community stakeholder, or even a youth in this instance,” Villafuerte said. “I don't see how one can evaluate whether there is systemic bias without interviewing the very people who have been impacted.”
Most importantly, Villafuerte said the state's child welfare system should do better.
“We are required by law to give families the tools and the resources they need so that they can reunite with their children in a safe way,” she said. “When we fail to give them those services or we delay in giving them those services, we delay child parent reunification, which means that you will have children languishing in foster care for months, if not years."
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