A statewide task force created to reform Colorado’s mandatory reporting laws in the wake of a 7-year-old girl’s death met for the first time Wednesday, beginning a two-year process to reconsider the longstanding law that requires some professionals to report suspected child abuse to state authorities.
The task force was created by state lawmakers earlier this year following a Denver Post investigation into the death of 7-year-old Olivia Gant in 2017.
Olivia was a long-term patient at Children’s Hospital Colorado before her mother moved her into hospice care. Before she died, some of her caregivers at the hospital suspected Olivia’s mother may have been medically abusing her, but the hospital did not alert any outside authorities to their suspicions until after Olivia’s death, despite the state’s mandatory reporting laws.
Olivia’s mother was charged with murder in 2019 after investigators accused her of faking Olivia’s illnesses and manipulating doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital into providing unnecessary and even life-threatening care. Turner later pleaded guilty to child abuse negligently resulting in death and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The task force includes 32 experts on child abuse, criminal and civil law, child welfare and child protective services. The group will meet 13 times over the next two years to consider how the state’s mandatory reporting law could be changed to make the process more effective, clear and equitable.
Created by lawmakers, the task force came directly out of Olivia’s death, bill sponsor Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood, has said.
Lonnie Gautreau, Olivia’s grandfather, watched the task force’s first three-hour meeting Wednesday and said he was hopeful the group’s effort would lead to meaningful change.
“You all seem like a highly credible group of people who are going to get this mandatory reporting fixed,” Gautreau said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “It completely failed my granddaughter, and I really can’t say any more than that.”
The task force is one of the first in the country to evaluate existing mandatory reporting laws in this way, said Stephanie Villafuerte, the state’s child protection ombudsman.
The group will consider the disproportionate impact of mandatory reporting laws on communities of color, training for mandatory reporters, how quickly reports must be made, how medical child abuse should be reported, and how reporting should work through institutions, like schools and hospitals, among other issues. The group will produce an annual report by January 2024 and a final report with recommended changes by January 2025.
“Mandatory reporting is an issue that our state hasn’t taken a nuts-and-bolts look at in quite a while,” said Jennifer Superka, director of legislative affairs and policy at the state’s Office of Child Protection Ombudsman.
The task force’s initial discussion Wednesday focused on the need for training and more clear mandatory reporting requirements, as well as the need to reduce harm to families who are investigated after a report of potential child abuse, particularly for families of color, who are disproportionately impacted.
“We need to make it simple so people can understand,” said Brynja Seagren, chief operations officer at the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver. “You shouldn’t need to have a law degree to interpret the mandated reporting statute.”
Task force members also called for a complete remake of the mandated reporting system, and said they intend to put reforms into concrete steps that can be turned into legislation and eventual statutory change.
“We have this rare opportunity to rewrite the cultural legacy of the family and children in Colorado,” said Donna Wilson, director of operations and community engagement at WellPower. “And the way we do that is, we have to dismantle this current system. It has caused more harm than help.”
