THE 2023 NCCPR COLORADO RATE-OF-REMOVAL INDEX
Released September 7, 2023
For nearly two decades, NCCPR has published a Rate-of-Removal Index which compares the propensity of states to adopt a “take-the-child-and-run” approach to child welfare. The index compares the number of children removed from their homes in each state during the most recent year for which data are available to a Census Bureau estimate of the number of children living in poverty in that state. The result is the number of removals of children from their homes for every 1,000 impoverished children in that state. It is that index which shows that, as of 2021, the most recent year for which national comparative data are available, Colorado takes away children at a rate 30% above the national average.
But in 13 states, including Colorado, individual counties run their own child welfare systems. We asked the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) for entry-into-care data for every Colorado county. We thank the department for their quick and thorough response to our request.
Because many Colorado counties are so small that rates of removal could rise or fall due to random chance, this index includes only the 11 counties with at least 2,000 impoverished children. And, in fact, except for Douglas County, all have at least 4,500 impoverished children. But those 11 counties represent 86% of the total child population in Colorado.
THIS IS NOT THE “SNAPSHOT NUMBER”…
The measure of a county’s foster care population usually seen in news accounts is the so-called “snapshot number,” indicating the number of children in foster care in a county on one particular day each year. That is a very important number, but it is a less accurate measure of a county’s propensity to remove children.
A county may have a high snapshot
number even if it takes away very few children, if it hangs on to those it
takes for a very long time. (That is, in
itself, a problem, but not a measure of the county’s propensity to take away
children in the first place.)
Conversely, a county can have a low snapshot number and still take away
many children, if the state takes them for a relatively short time. Thus, a county that takes away many children
in January, but returns most of them by August will have a low number if the
“snapshot” is taken in September. Also,
a county that took away a great many children a decade or more ago and let them
languish in foster care may have a low snapshot number now simply because those
children are “aging out” of the system at 18 – hardly a testament to a system’s
success.
…RATHER, THIS INDEX USES REMOVALS OVER THE COURSE OF A YEAR
So instead of measuring the foster
care population on any given day, the NCCPR Colorado Rate-of-Removal Index
relies on CDHS data listing the number of children removed by child welfare
agencies at some point over the course of a given year.
FACTORING IN POVERTY
We could have simply compared the number of children removed to a county’s total child population. But then all the counties with high rates of removal and high child poverty rates would complain that this was unfair because we didn’t consider the single biggest risk factor for actual abuse (not to mention the factor most often falsely equated with “neglect”) – poverty. And counties with very low poverty rates would look far better than they deserve.
Case in point: Colorado’s wealthiest county and one of the richest in America, Douglas County. If you compare entries into foster care to total child population, Douglas County looks great – because so many Douglas County children are wealthy and wealth, unlike poverty, is not confused with “neglect.” But when you compare entries to impoverished child population – in other words, the target population of the family police -- Douglas is virtually tied for worst among Colorado’s largest counties.
To factor that in, and come closer to an apples-to-apples comparison, we compare removals in each county for the year ending March 31, 2023 (the most recent data available) to the number of impoverished children in that county, according to a Census Bureau estimate for 2021; again, the most recent data available.
CAVEATS
● The Census Bureau child poverty estimates represent the middle of a range. That’s another reason we’ve limited the comparison to larger counties. Even so, the Index cannot be used to draw conclusions about counties with similar rates of removal. Rather, the index is a way to spot the outliers, larger counties that take away children at rates well above the state and national average.
● How much foster care is hidden? These figures are only officially-reported entries into care. All over the country states and counties sometimes resort to “hidden foster care,” in which they coerce families into “voluntarily” surrendering custody of their children, usually to relatives. But in a practice that is legally questionable, they deem these placements informal and decide they don’t have to count them. By definition, we don’t know how often that happens in any given Colorado county.
● Close
readers will note that the national average estimate and the state average
estimate in this index are slightly different from the figures in our report on
Colorado family policing, Colorado
Trails. Both figures are lower
in the index:
--The
national average figure also is lower because, even though it’s still the 2021
figure, it uses a different Census Bureau measure of poverty. The measure used in this index estimates a
higher total number of impoverished children nationwide.
· One cannot say, based on these data, that county X “took Y percent of its poor children from their parents.” That would be inaccurate because, while the overwhelming majority of children taken from their parents are poor, not all of them are. Thus, we are comparing a pool of children – those removed from their parents – that is mostly poor, to a general population that is entirely poor. One can say only that, for example, according to this index, in the year ending March 31, 2023, Mesa, Douglas, El Paso and Jefferson Counties appeared particularly prone to take away children.
And contrary to the excuses these counties may offer, a high rate of removal does nothing to improve child safety. On the contrary, a system overloaded with children who don’t need to be in foster care there steals time from finding the relatively few children in real danger.
DATA TABLE: NCCPR 2023 COLORADO RATE-OF-REMOVAL INDEX
●All data on entries into care
and child safety: NCCPR request to Colorado Department of Human Services,
received August 4, 2023.
● Impoverished child
population: Bureau of the Census, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates,
available online at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html
