Foster Care & Child Welfare Reform

The Problem

When the state removes a child from their home, it makes a promise: that the child will be safer and better off than if the state had done nothing. For thousands of Colorado children, that promise is broken. The child welfare system that is supposed to protect them is chronically underfunded, overstretched, and structured in ways that produce some of the worst long-term outcomes of any public institution we operate.

The clearest evidence is what happens to the young people who “age out” - who reach adulthood still in foster care, without a permanent family. Between 22% and 30% of youth who age out of care experience homelessness during the transition to adulthood, compared to roughly 4% of the general population (National Youth in Transition Database analysis, 2022). A prospective study using the same national data found that close to 30% of former foster youth were incarcerated in young adulthood, with youth who aged out facing substantially higher risk than those who were adopted or placed in guardianship (prospective NYTD analysis, 2025). These are not isolated tragedies. They are the predictable result of cutting a young person loose at 18 or 21 with no family, no savings, and no safety net.

Caseloads That Make Good Practice Impossible

Behind every one of those outcomes is a caseworker who did not have enough time. Colorado funds child welfare caseworkers at a ratio of roughly 10 cases per worker (Colorado Department of Human Services, 2020), but actual carried caseloads frequently exceed funded levels, and a single “case” can involve multiple children and a sprawling web of hearings, visits, and service referrals. The Child Welfare League of America has long recommended that ongoing-services caseworkers carry no more than 12 to 15 children (Child Welfare League of America, n.d.). When workers are stretched past that point, visits get shorter, warning signs get missed, and the relationships that actually keep children safe never form. High caseloads also drive turnover, and every time a child loses a caseworker, they lose continuity, trust, and momentum toward permanency.

Disproportionality for Children of Color

The burdens of this system are not distributed equally. African American children are overrepresented at nearly every decision point in child welfare - reports, investigations, removals, and placement - and Black children experience higher rates of placement instability than white children (Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 2022). Researchers increasingly attribute these disparities not to differences in family behavior but to bias in the subjective, high-stakes decisions caseworkers and courts must make (PMC, 2022). A system that removes children of color at higher rates, then moves them more often once they are in care, compounds harm on the families least able to absorb it.

Our Solution

Denver Human Services administers child welfare for the City and County of Denver. The Mayor controls its budget, its hiring, and its priorities. The city does not need to wait for the legislature to fix the most damaging parts of this system. We propose four reforms.

1. Fully Fund Kinship Caregivers

When a child cannot live with their parents, the best alternative is almost always a relative. Children in kinship care experience greater placement stability and fewer re-entries into foster care than children in non-relative homes (Washington DCYF research brief, 2022). Yet kinship caregivers - often grandparents on fixed incomes - frequently receive far less financial support than licensed foster parents caring for the same child.

• Equalize kinship payments so that relatives caring for a child receive monthly stipends comparable to the licensed foster care rate, not a fraction of it.
• Build a Denver kinship navigator program to connect relative caregivers with cash assistance, legal help with guardianship, childcare, and respite care - an evidence-based service explicitly eligible for federal reimbursement.
• Cover the upfront costs - beds, car seats, clothing, school supplies - that cause many willing relatives to say no simply because they cannot afford the first month.

2. Transition Housing & Support for Youth Aging Out

No young person should leave foster care into a shelter. Colorado already allows young adults to remain in extended foster care and access services, including housing, to age 21 through a voluntary transition program (Juvenile Law Center, n.d.). Denver should make that promise real on the ground.

• Dedicated transition housing for transition-age youth (18-24) leaving or recently out of care, with supportive services on site.
• Set-aside vouchers in city affordable-housing programs for former foster youth.
• A guaranteed point of contact - a transition coach who helps every aging-out youth secure housing, enroll in school or work, open a bank account, and stay connected long after their case formally closes.

3. Cap Caseworker Caseloads

• Adopt an enforceable caseload cap for Denver Human Services caseworkers aligned with the Child Welfare League of America standard of no more than 12-15 children per ongoing worker.
• Fund the positions to make the cap real, rather than setting a target the budget never meets.
• Invest in retention - competitive pay, manageable workloads, and clinical supervision - so experienced workers stay and children keep the same caseworker through their case.

4. Culturally Responsive Services

• Recruit and license kinship and foster homes within children’s own communities so that placement does not also mean cultural dislocation.
• Contract community-based organizations rooted in Denver’s Black, Latino, Indigenous, and immigrant communities to deliver family support and prevention services.
• Require bias training and track disproportionality data publicly at every decision point - report, removal, placement, and permanency - so the city can see whether its reforms are closing racial gaps.

Evidence

Kinship Care Produces Better Outcomes

The research consensus is strong: children placed with relatives do better than children placed with strangers. They experience more stable placements, fewer disruptions, and fewer re-entries into care, and they remain more connected to siblings, culture, and community (Washington DCYF research brief, 2022). The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 was built on this evidence, redirecting federal dollars toward keeping children with families and out of institutions. Supporting kin is not only kinder; it is what the data say works.

Aging Out Without Support Is a Pipeline to Crisis

The lesson is consistent: the worst outcomes cluster among youth who leave care with no permanent family. Every dollar spent on kinship support, permanency, and transition housing is a dollar that prevents a far costlier crisis of homelessness or incarceration later.

Caseload Standards Exist for a Reason

The Child Welfare League of America’s recommendation of 12-15 children per ongoing caseworker (Child Welfare League of America, n.d.) reflects decades of practice evidence that safety and permanency depend on caseworkers having enough time per child. Colorado’s funded 10:1 ratio (Colorado Department of Human Services, 2020) sounds adequate on paper, but because a single case can include several children and intensive court and service obligations, real workloads routinely exceed what good practice allows.

Local Context

Colorado runs a state-supervised, county-administered child welfare system: the Colorado Department of Human Services sets rules and provides oversight, while the state’s 64 counties - including Denver - actually deliver services (Colorado Department of Human Services, n.d.). This structure matters enormously for local advocacy. Denver Human Services is the agency that investigates reports, removes children, licenses foster and kinship homes, and supports youth leaving care within the City and County of Denver. The Mayor appoints its leadership and sets its budget.

That means many of the reforms here do not require an act of the legislature. The city can raise kinship payments, fund a kinship navigator program, set caseload caps, build transition housing, and contract culturally responsive providers using its own budget and the federal match available under Family First. Where state law sets the floor - as with extended foster care to 21 - Denver’s job is to make sure the program is fully staffed and that no eligible young person falls through the cracks.

Frequently Asked Questions

“Isn’t child welfare the state’s job, not the city’s?” Colorado’s system is state-supervised but county-administered, which means Denver Human Services - a city agency under the Mayor - does the actual work of investigating reports, placing children, supporting caregivers, and helping youth transition out. The state sets minimum rules; the city decides how well to fund and run the program. Most of the failures described here are fixable at the city level.

“Won’t paying kinship caregivers more cost the city money?” It costs less than the alternative. Relatives provide more stable placements at lower disruption rates, and many kinship and prevention services qualify for at least 50% federal reimbursement under the Family First Prevention Services Act (2018). Every child kept stably with family avoids the far higher long-term costs of group placements, repeated moves, and the homelessness and incarceration that disproportionately follow youth who age out without permanency.

“Why focus on youth aging out specifically?” Because the outcomes are catastrophic and preventable. With 22-30% facing homelessness and close to 30% facing incarceration (NYTD analyses, 2022; 2025), transition-age youth are the clearest example of the system creating the very crises - housing instability, justice-system contact - that other parts of this platform spend heavily to address. Stable transition housing and a guaranteed point of contact are cheap relative to the lifetime cost of those outcomes.

“Will caseload caps just mean more bureaucracy?” A caseload cap is not paperwork; it is a staffing commitment. The Child Welfare League of America recommends no more than 12-15 children per ongoing worker (CWLA, n.d.) precisely because workers carrying more than that cannot safely do the job. A cap that is actually funded means more time per child, fewer missed warning signs, and lower turnover - which is itself a major source of instability for kids.

“How does this connect to racial justice?” Children of color are removed at higher rates and moved more often once in care, with research pointing to bias in subjective decisions rather than differences in family behavior (Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 2022). Recruiting kinship and foster homes within children’s own communities, contracting culturally rooted providers, and publicly tracking disproportionality data are concrete tools for narrowing those gaps.

How We Pay For It

This policy is funded through a combination of reallocation and federal match rather than a major new tax, which is why hasFundingSources is set to false - it relies on dollars already moving through the system.

1. Kinship stipends at parity with foster rates. Funded by redirecting placement dollars away from higher-cost congregate and non-relative placements as more children are safely placed with kin, plus the federal match described below.
2. Family First Prevention Services Act match. Colorado can draw down at least 50% federal reimbursement for evidence-based kinship navigator and prevention programs (Family First Prevention Services Act, 2018). Standing up a Denver kinship navigator program and prevention services lets the city pay for roughly half of these supports with federal dollars.
3. Reallocation from congregate care. Group and institutional placements are the most expensive form of care and, under Family First, increasingly the hardest to fund federally. Shifting children into kin and family settings frees existing placement dollars for stipends and transition housing.
4. Existing housing and workforce funds. Transition housing for aging-out youth can be supported through set-asides in the city’s affordable-housing programs rather than a standalone appropriation.

The savings are real but mostly downstream: every young person who exits care into stable housing instead of homelessness, or into employment instead of incarceration, avoids costs the city and county would otherwise bear for years.

References

• Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. (2022). Racial matching in foster care placements and subsequent placement stability: A national study. https://link.springer.com
• Child Welfare League of America. (n.d.). Caseload and workload standards. https://www.cwla.org/our-work/practice-excellence-center/workforce-2/caseload-workload/
• Colorado Department of Human Services. (n.d.). Child welfare [State-supervised, county-administered program overview]. https://cdhs.colorado.gov/child-welfare
• Colorado Department of Human Services. (2020). Child welfare caseload funding ratio [10 cases per worker]. https://cdhs.colorado.gov
• Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-123, Div. E, Title VII. https://www.congress.gov
• Juvenile Law Center. (n.d.). Extended foster care in Colorado [Voluntary transition program to age 21]. https://jlc.org/issues/extended-foster-care/colorado
• National Youth in Transition Database analysis. (2022). Homelessness among youth aging out of foster care [Data analysis]. https://youth.gov
• Prospective NYTD analysis. (2025). From foster care to incarceration: A prospective analysis of the National Youth in Transition Database. Child Abuse & Neglect. https://www.sciencedirect.com
• Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families. (2022). Child outcomes in kinship care [Research brief]. https://www.dcyf.wa.gov