The 2017 death of a 7-year-old girl prompted the creation of a statewide task force to scrutinize the state’s mandatory reporting laws on suspected child abuse. 

The new task force met this week for the first time. It plans to meet 13 times over the next two years and produce a report for the legislature by January 2025.

Colorado’s law currently requires certain professionals to report suspected child abuse or neglect to authorities. 

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“The real question for this task force is, ‘Is that law effective? Is it doing all we need it to do for the people it was intended to help?'” said task force Chair Stephanie Villafuerte. Villafuerte is the state’s child protection ombudsman, an agency in the judicial branch.

She said some key questions about the effectiveness of mandatory reporting laws are whether they protect children as intended, whether they disproportionately impact families of color subjected to investigations and whether the laws sweep too many families into the child welfare system.

During Tuesday’s initial meeting, task force members discussed needs they see for issues such as better clarity on when someone is required to make a report, who in an agency should make a report and who to report to.

Criston Menz, a clinical social worker in Otero County, said she wants better clarity on standards for getting help for parents or taking a child out of their home in cases of emotional abuse. She contracts with school districts as well as operating her private practice, and said she sees a lot of repetitive reports made in situations involving emotional abuse.

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“From a clinical standpoint, we see the most damage in our kids from constant emotional abuse or Stockholm syndrome, so to speak,” she said.

The task force has 32 members with expertise in areas including domestic abuse, child services and welfare, mental health, law and education. A law passed this year created the task force and appropriated $97,500 to the Office of the Child Protection Ombudsman for costs.

Rep. Meg Froelich, a Democrat from Arapahoe County, said in a House Judiciary Committee hearing the death of 7-year-old Olivia Gant in 2017 motivated the task force’s creation and a report from the Office of the Child Protection Ombudsman. Gant’s mother claimed her daughter was terminally ill and was accused of seeking unnecessary and dangerous medical care for her from Children’s Hospital Colorado. This year she pleaded guilty to child abuse negligently resulting in death.

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Suspicions of medical child abuse by hospital employees were never reported to outside authorities, Froelich said.

Gant’s grandfather, Lonnie Gautreau, said during Tuesday’s public comment session he hopes the task force can help fix mandatory reporting systems.

“It completely failed my granddaughter, and I really can’t say any more than that.”

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