Colorado: Karen Beye

Two years ago this month, 7-year-old Chandler Grafner starved to death in the bottom of a linen closet in a case of child abuse that outraged Coloradans and shone a light on holes in the state's child-welfare safety net.

The deaths of 12 other children that came to public attention a year later underscored those flaws.

A new law that took effect Tuesday is aimed at mending holes in that safety net by requiring every new social worker in Colorado to attend state training on how to better recognize and document cases of child abuse.

The law requires state training and certification for county and city workers, some of whom may not have received standardized on-the-job education at the local level, according to Gov.