A new report from the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services on the fatal beating of an 8-year-old boy blamed Denver Public Schools — not human services workers — for the child’s death.

The department’s Child Fatality Review Team found no fault with human service workers in the death of 8-year-old Dametrious Wilson, pointing instead to “systemic gaps” and “deficiencies” within the school district, including a failure to report Wilson’s numerous absences to human services or as truancy.

“DPS is not in agreement with CDHS concluding in their own report that the only system error they could identify lies solely with DPS and school attendance,” Denver Public Schools spokesperson Scott Pribble said in an emailed statement to the Denver Post.

Pribble said the school district has been working on updating attendance guidelines and focusing on interventions for chronic absenteeism, which measures both unexcused and excused absences.

“This work predatesDametrious’s murder,” Pribble said.

State officials also criticized the school’s lack of communication with other family members when staff was unable to make contact with Susan Baffour — the boy’s great aunt and custodial guardian — to discuss Wilson’s absences, according to the report.

On June 2, 2022, Baffour hit Wilson more than 40 times with a wooden back scrubber for tearing part of her couch. The8-year-old was found dead the next morning.

Baffour is serving a 36-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in Denver District Court to two counts of felony child abuse, a plea deal that dropped the charge of first-degree murder from her case, according to the district court case file.

Wilson and his older sister moved in with Baffour in 2017 because their mother was unable to care for them, according to the arrest affidavit.

State officials did not make any formal recommendations for changes in policies or practices to any involved parties in the report.

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