Colorado is on track to make key changes to prevent children and teens from running away from residential treatment centers and foster care, and keeping track of them when they do.
Part of the plan is to allow a state-owned residential treatment center for young people with behavioral health problems to put up a fence 鈥� something currently prohibited under Colorado law. Legislation would allow a new youth treatment center set to open in Denver next year to build a secure perimeter fence.
Current state law allows only facilities that keep kids who have been accused or convicted of crimes 鈥� juvenile detention centers 鈥� to put up secure fences.
Another bill would require the state to have a 鈥渞isk assessment tool鈥� to try to predict which kids will try to run away, track data about runaways to get a better scope of the problem, and create a plan to find them.
The legislation follows two years of study triggered by the deaths of two boys who ran away from different Denver-area residential treatment centers and were struck and killed by cars. The runaway problem is widespread, a found, and residential care centers struggle to contain children because of strict laws regarding fences, locked doors and physical restraint.
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