Colorado needs a database to track foster care runaways, task force finds

Colorado should keep track of basic information about foster children who run away, including their age and race, how they were able to run, and why, according to a state task force set up to help protect them. 

The task force that met for two years said the state lacks such basic, extractable data about runaways that it’s hard to conduct “any meaningful analysis.” The creation of such a database was among one of several recommendations released Tuesday as the task force came out with its final report. 

When a child in foster care goes missing, the county child welfare division is required to report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children immediately, or within 24 hours. Foster parents and staff who run residential centers also are required to tell local law enforcement when they realize a child is gone. 

But Colorado has no “standard, statewide system that effectively collects information and data regarding instances of children and youth running away from care, nor is there a current system that allows for the extrapolation of data in a way that would allow for meaningful analysis,” said the final report from task force, organized by the Office of the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman.

Without more data, Colorado will struggle to get at the root causes of why children run away and how to stop it. The task force is named after Timothy Montoya, a 12-year-old boy who ran away from Tennyson Center for Children in Denver and was struck by a vehicle and killed. He was one of two boys who died after leaving Denver-area centers and being hit by cars. The other was 15-year-old Andrew Potter. 

A Colorado Sun/9 News investigation into their deaths found police were summoned to residential centers hundreds of times each month to deal with runaways. 

The data captured for a future database should include: how long a child was missing, how many times they have run away, the reasons they say they fled, the services they were provided when they were found and whether any physical restraints were used to try to prevent them from running, the report said. 

By looking at data collected in other states, the task force found that children who are removed from their homes at an older age are more likely to run away and that children of color, and especially Black children, are more likely to run. 

Through interviews with foster youth who have run away, the task force found that many referred to a “triggering event” that included a phone call from home or news that they were missing out on events at home. They said they fled while they were in a “state of emergency” that interfered with their ability to consider the consequences of running. 

Staff are confused about when they can prevent kids from leaving

Colorado has about 3,500 children living in foster families, residential treatment centers and other placements. In the past year, 34 children ran away from these placements and were not returned, according to Colorado Department of Human Services data. The state does not track how many foster youth are missing on a daily basis.

The task force’s report also called on Colorado to create a runaway prevention curriculum that would be required for all foster parents and residential centers. And the group said Colorado needs to consider adding safety measures at residential treatment centers that would prevent children and teens from leaving the property. While some facilities have locks, fencing and alarms, others do not because they do not think it’s allowed. 

“This has led to a situation where youth are often able to simply walk away from care without any barriers,” the report said. 

Colorado law is too ambiguous about a facility’s ability to prevent a child or teen from walking away, the task force found. “Youth are often allowed to leave the premises without any intervention by facility staff,” the report says. 

Staff at the facilities reported in one study that they’re regularly confused and paralyzed by what’s known as the Colorado “Restraint and Seclusion Act,” which says they cannot physically prevent a child from leaving a residential treatment center unless the child is in imminent danger. In one case, a worker watched as a 13-year-old boy ran from a center in the middle of a blizzard wearing only sweats and flip-flops. Instead of trying to catch him, she kept an eye on the boy from her car until the child returned to the facility on his own. 

The task force also recommended that after runaways are returned, they should have access to a short-term stabilization center to deal with the trauma that occurred while they were on the run. 

Lawmakers created and funded the task force, including research assistance from the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab at the University of Denver. The panel’s report now goes to lawmakers, who can decide whether to propose changes in law based on the recommendations.