Lawyers clashed in the Colorado Court of Appeals on Tuesday over whether the state’s Children’s Code prohibits the Colorado Department of Human Services (DHS) from publicly releasing aggregate statistics about child-abuse hotline calls made from licensed residential care facilities.
Representing 9NEWS and The Colorado Sun, attorney Steve Zansberg challenged the agency to explain how disclosing three years of numbers for three group facilities could possibly identify any particular child, family member or other individual.
He cited an August ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which stated that § 19-1-307(1)(a) “prohibits and penalizes only the disclosure of identifying information from child abuse reports.” Although the street addresses of the facilities are publicly known, that information by itself isn’t sufficient to figure out someone’s identity, Zansberg told a three-judge appellate panel.
“We strongly disagree with the department’s position that, in all instances, an address is identifying information,” said Zansberg, who is president of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.