Counties will have to start tracking and reporting caseloads of child-protection workers to the state, part of what Colorado officials say is a renewed effort to improve protection for abused and neglected children.

The state's pledge comes after a Denver Post/9News investigation found the Colorado Human Services Department does not have the data to determine whether caseworkers are overwhelmed. State officials do not know the average caseloads for child- protection workers in Colorado's 64 counties, and the state is one of 11 that neglect to report that data to the federal government.

After numerous requests from the newspaper under public-records laws, state human-services officials ordered Colorado's 10 largest counties to tally their average caseload per worker through a manual count.

"The first time I went to them, they literally said they couldn't get it," said Dee Martinez, a deputy director for state human services. "I said, 'You're going to figure out a way to do this.' "

Now, those counties are required to submit the data quarterly, she said.

The state is working on a system to collect the data automatically by computer. Besides the caseload per worker, the system will include the number of children — not just cases — per caseworker, Martinez said.

When the 10 largest counties are using the system correctly, the state will extend it to Colorado's other 54 counties. Eventually, all counties will provide caseload data monthly, Martinez said. The information will then go to federal human-services officials.

"We're in the infancy on this right now," she said. "But I think eventually, maybe a year from now, you will see much more direction on this."

Data collection regarding abused and neglected children has been a problem for years in Colorado, in part because the child-welfare system is county-run and state-administered. Colorado is one of nine states in the country that are county-run.

Although state-provided data for the 10 largest counties showed caseloads ranged from eight to 13 cases per worker, child-protection workers throughout Colorado told The Post they manage 20 to 40 cases at once.

Kelly Stortz Saint, overwhelmed to the point she felt she was hurting families more than helping them, quit her job as a Mesa County caseworker this fall. The Grand Junction woman had 34 active cases, and one or two new ones arrived on her desk each day, she said.

Each case began with a safety assessment of a family to determine whether children were in danger. The busier she got, the less time she spent with families. Interviews with children were boiled down to 15 minutes in the school office.

"I don't think any kid is going to give their deep, dark secrets to you in 15 minutes in the principal's office," said Saint, who resigned after 15 years and now does office work for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"It's hard to be set up to fail, when you are crossing your fingers hoping that nothing bad happens. It eats at your soul after a while," she said.

Several caseworkers, including Saint, said they worked at least 60-hour weeks: by day, visiting families, and into the night, typing up case reports into a statewide database.

The Post's investigation found caseworkers often make mistakes in that paperwork or when doing safety assessments and safety plans for at-risk families.

In more than half of child- abuse deaths in the past six years, caseworkers did not follow state policy regarding how to investigate neglect and abuse allegations, according to an analysis of state child-fatality reviews.

Since 2007, more than 190 children in Colorado have died of abuse and neglect. Of those, at least 75 had families or caregivers who were known to human services. Three children were added to the list in the past month.

Caseload data reports likely will become part of a monthly meeting that Reggie Bicha, executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services, holds with top officials in the Office of Children, Youth & Family Services to review performance statistics, Martinez said.

During those monthly meetings, top officials review data gathered to drive improvement in county welfare departments. Since July, the state has been tracking how many child-abuse investigations remain open after the 60-day limit, Martinez said.

Since that time, some counties have improved markedly in the timeliness of investigations. During a recent meeting with Bicha, El Paso County child- welfare officials noted they now had fewer than 1 percent of their cases open past the 60-day deadline. In July, that county had 24 percent of their cases open past that deadline.

"You could see the enthusiasm for what they had accomplished and what that was going to mean for kids," Bicha said during a recent staff meeting.

Now state officials are turning their efforts to other areas of the state that remain laggards on timeliness of investigation. During one recent meeting, Bicha asked his staff to explore why Douglas County still had so many of its investigations out of compliance.

He also wanted to investigate why Pueblo County's numbers were getting worse on the timeliness measurement. In July, 11 percent of Pueblo's child-welfare abuse and neglect investigations remained open after 60 days. By October, that had inched up to 16 percent.

State officials plan to use new caseload data to determine whether workloads have an impact on the time it takes child- protection workers to complete investigations.

Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or twitter.com/chrisosher

Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593, jbrown@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jbrowndpost