Child Advocacy Groups Say Colorado’s Foster System Isn’t Working

Colorado’s child welfare systems are broken, according to the National Coalition for Child Protection and Reform and MJCF Coalition.

The error is two-fold, the two groups claim — the state takes children away from their parents at a rate 30 percent higher rate than the national average, sometimes unnecessarily, according to a report the two organizations released on September 7; and it usually places those foster children with unrelated foster families rather than capable relatives, even while those relatives are fighting for custody, the report says.

NCCPR calls that foster care method of placing children in the care of relatives “kinship foster care” and says it is the system’s least harmful form. It also reports that Colorado does it at a rate 33 percent below the national…