Colorado
What Colorado reported to the federal government about the children in its custody and the children it investigated. Where a year says not reported, that is the record.
The funnel, FFY 2024
Colorado vs. national
What happened to reports of child maltreatment in Colorado in federal fiscal year 2024, at each decision point. Rates are what make states comparable; raw counts mostly measure population.
| Stage | Colorado | Rate | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referrals to CPSCounts: referrals | 110,630 | 91.2per 1,000 children | 59.3 |
| Screened in (became reports)Counts: referrals | 28,63525.9% of referrals | — | 47.1% |
| Screened outCounts: referrals | 81,99574.1% of referrals | — | 52.9% |
| Children investigated or given an alternative responseCounts: children | 37,211 | 30.7per 1,000 children | 40.6 |
| Child victims (substantiated or indicated)Counts: children | 8,185 | 6.7per 1,000 children | 7.2 |
| Child fatalitiesCounts: children | 28 | 2.31per 100,000 children | 2.41 |
Referrals, reports, children, and victims are four different denominators and are not interchangeable. A referral may concern more than one child; a child may appear in more than one referral; a victim is a child with a substantiated or indicated disposition. National figures are the Children's Bureau's own estimates, not sums of the state rows.
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS), Tables 2-3, 3-1, 3-3, 4-1
What Colorado does not report
For the measures on this page, Colorado reported a figure in every year covered. That is not the same as the figures being complete or comparable — see the methodology for what the federal record does not measure at all.
Maltreatment and fatalities over time (NCANDS)
Child fatalities reported to NCANDS, Colorado, FFY2020 to FFY2024
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)
KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: child fatalities
Child maltreatment victims, Colorado, FFY2020 to FFY2024
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)
KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: child victims (substantiated or indicated)
Foster care (AFCARS)
| Measure | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adopted with public agency involvement | 782 | 769 | 820 | 839 | 948 | 910 | 919 | 832 | 790 | 745 |
| Entered foster care | 4,820 | 4,686 | 4,926 | 5,277 | 5,134 | 4,785 | 4,420 | 3,554 | 3,542 | 3,097 |
| Exited foster care | 4,691 | 4,522 | 4,805 | 4,898 | 4,873 | 4,741 | 4,402 | 3,936 | 3,899 | 3,022 |
| In foster care on September 30 | 5,851 | 5,787 | 5,644 | 5,733 | 5,704 | 5,542 | 5,340 | 4,804 | 4,248 | 4,133 |
| Children served in foster care | 10,542 | 10,309 | 10,449 | 10,630 | 10,577 | 10,283 | 9,742 | 8,740 | 8,147 | 7,155 |
| Termination of parental rights | 470 | 499 | 531 | 568 | 514 | 499 | 516 | 488 | 520 | 560 |
| Waiting for adoption | 896 | 1,008 | 926 | 1,038 | 953 | 997 | 1,007 | 921 | 872 | 823 |
Source: AFCARS state tables, FY2013 to FY2022
AFCARS 2020 rule, FFY2023 to FFY2025 (preliminary)
Collected under the AFCARS 2020 final rule, first effective FFY 2023. Counts include ages 0 to 23. Figures are preliminary estimates from submissions received by February 27, 2026, and states may still revise them. This series is not comparable with the FY 2013 to FY 2022 series, which was collected under the 1993 rule and counted a narrower population; this site does not join the two. Wyoming first submitted under the new rule for FFY 2024 and Washington for FFY 2025; earlier years for those states are shown as not reported.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entered foster care | 3,254 | 2,957 | 2,998 |
| In foster care on September 30 | 4,053 | 3,872 | 4,194 |
| Exited foster care | 2,903 | 2,874 | 2,409 |
Counts: children (ages 0 to 23)
Source: AFCARS Dashboard, preliminary FFY2025 estimates (No. 33)
Colorado in the archive
What the numbers above cost, in KARA's own reporting.
- Kudos to Wisconsin for Tracking Child Death and Egregious Harm
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJune 28, 2026
Wisconsin’s public website for child death and egregious CPS incidents shows what honest tracking can look like. Minnesota’s Safe Passage child fatality report revealed children murdered by caregivers while known to CPS, but near deaths and...
- Child Abuse Prevention In America (videos & articles)
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJune 26, 2026
KARA reports on the issues of at risk children by curating a wide lens on child abuse and child protection. This post pulls together recent coverage from newspapers, universities, public health departments, UNICEF, the White House, and fron...
- State of Foster Care In America
KARA reportingMike TikkanenMay 16, 2026
American Fosters are struggling. These reports from around the nation indicate a great need for more help for at risk families and safe homes for children unlucky enough to be born into toxic homes.
- 2. How Colorado Hid Child Abuse Behind FAR Policy Changes (thank you Marie Cohen & Child Welfare Monitor)
KARA reportingMike TikkanenMay 11, 2026
Colorado claims a 40 percent drop in child abuse and neglect, but state data tell a different story. Hotline reports are up, while fewer cases are screened in, more are diverted to Family Assessment Response (FAR), instead of investigating ...
- Sometimes People Get Shot
KARA reportingMike TikkanenMay 4, 2026
• “From Cedarbluff, Mississippi, to parties in Houston and homes in Indiana, early 2026 brought mass shootings that briefly made headlines and then faded. This essay connects those tragedies to a deeper crisis: how our systems ignore childh...
- A Closer Look At Child Fatality and Egregious Incident Reporting
KARA reportingMike TikkanenMarch 8, 2026
Child Fatality & Egregious Incident Reporting: A U.S. Overview America’s approach to exposing and understanding the gravest harms done to children—fatalities, near-deaths, torture, and catastrophic agency failures—reveals a nation deeply di...
- What You Can Do Series - School Boards
KARA reportingMike TikkanenFebruary 1, 2026
School boards wield profound power over the safety, healing, and long-term success of children. What they choose to fund, prioritize, debate, and champion can dramatically shape school culture and community expectations around trauma, menta...
- Manner of Child Death Unknown (State by State)
KARA reportingMike TikkanenOctober 23, 2025
WHEN YOU Share KARA’s reporting with FRIENDS, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK and most of all, your State Representative (find them here) change will come a little bit faster. When enough of us become informed and speak up for abused and neglected chi...