In 2012, the "Keeping Kids Safe and Families Healthy" child welfare plan detailed a common practice approach for Colorado's 64 counties and two tribal nations designed to strengthen the state's child welfare system. The plan included the development of a statewide hotline to provide one phone number to report suspected child abuse or neglect.
House Bill 13-1271, signed into law in May 2013, authorized the creation of a steering committee tasked with developing:
Committee members engaged in a process to develop a child abuse and neglect hotline reporting system in which every caller's concern is documented, and no child falls through the cracks.
The Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline, 844-CO-4-Kids, became operational on January 1, 2015. The hotline is designed to provide one, easy-to-remember toll-free phone number for individuals to use statewide to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
The hotline serves as a direct, immediate and efficient route to the counties, which are responsible for accepting and responding to child abuse and neglect inquiries and reports. All hotline calls will be routed to the county where a child resides.
The hotline system enables CDHS to capture critical information that it has not previously been able to track on a statewide basis, such as:
This data is critical to ensuring that calls across the state are handled quickly and appropriately.
Counties will maintain their current practices of receiving reports of abuse and neglect, but to ensure proper routing, each county must have a dedicated line for child abuse and neglect reporting. Calls made directly to a county's dedicated line will also be routed through the hotline system for data collection purposes. This process is automated and seamless and does not require putting a caller on hold or cause any delay in answering calls.
An ongoing statewide public awareness campaign engages all Coloradans in the prevention of child abuse and neglect and promotes the Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline.