2018 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 26 - Human Services Code
Article 6 - Child Care Centers
Part 1 - Child Care Licensing
§ 26-6-102. Definitions

(1) "Affiliate of a licensee" means:

• (a) Any person or entity that owns more than five percent of the ownership interest in the business operated by the licensee or the applicant for a license; or

• (b) Any person who is directly responsible for the care and welfare of children served; or

• (c) Any executive, officer, member of the governing board, or employee of a licensee; or

• (d) A relative of a licensee, which relative provides care to children at the licensee's facility or is otherwise involved in the management or operations of the licensee's facility.

(2) "Application" means a declaration of intent to obtain or continue a license or certificate for a child care facility or a child placement agency.

(3) "Certificate" means a legal document granting permission to operate a foster care home or a kinship foster care home.

(4) "Certification" means the process by which the county department of human or social services or a child placement agency approves the operation of a foster care home.

(5) "Child care center" means a facility, by whatever name known, that is maintained for the wholeor part of a day for the care of five or more children who are eighteen years of age or younger and who are not related to the owner, operator, or manager thereof, whether the facility is operated with or without compensation for such care and with or without stated educational purposes. The term includes, but is not limited to, facilities commonly known as day care centers, school-age child care centers, before and after school programs, nursery schools, kindergartens, preschools, day camps, summer camps, and centers for developmentally disabled children and those facilities that give twenty-four-hour care for children and includes those facilities for children under the age of six years with stated educational purposes operated in conjunction with a public, private, or parochial college or a private or parochial school; except that the term shall not apply to any kindergarten maintained in connection with a public, private, or parochial elementary school system of at least six grades or operated as a component of a school district's preschool program operated pursuant to article 28 of title 22, C.R.S. The term shall not include any facility licensed as a family child care home, a foster care home, or a specialized group facility that is licensed to provide care for three or more children pursuant to subsection (36) of this section, but that is providing care for three or fewer children who are determined to have a developmental disability by a community centered board or who are diagnosed with a serious emotional disturbance.

(6) "Child care provider", as used in section 26-6-119, means a licensee, or an affiliate of a licensee, when the licensee holds a license to operate a family child care home pursuant to this part 1.

(7) "Child placement agency" means any corporation, partnership, association, firm, agency, institution, or person unrelated to the child being placed, who places, who facilitates placement for a fee, or who arranges for placement, for care of any child under the age of eighteen years with any family, person, or institution. A child placement agency may place, facilitate placement, or arrange for the placement of a child for the purpose of adoption, treatment, or foster care. The natural parents or guardian of any child who places said child for care with any facility licensed as a "family child care home" or "child care center" as defined by this section shall not be deemed a child placement agency.

(8) (a) "Children's resident camp" means a facility operating for three or more consecutive twenty-four-hour days during one or more seasons of the year for the care of five or more children. The facility shall have as its purpose a group living experience offering education and recreational activities in an outdoor environment. The recreational experiences may occur at the permanent camp premises or on trips off the premises.

• (b) A children's resident camp shall serve children who have completed kindergarten or are six years of age or older through children younger than nineteen years of age; except that a person nineteen years of age or twenty years of age may attend a children's resident camp if, within six months prior to attending the children's resident camp, he or she has attended or has graduated from high school.

(9) "Cradle care home" means a facility that is certified by a child placement agency for the care of a child, or children in the case of multiple-birth siblings, who is twelve months of age or younger, in a place of residence for the purpose of providing twenty-four-hour family care for six months or less in anticipation of a voluntary relinquishment of the child or children pursuant to article 5 of title 19, C.R.S., or while a county prepares an expedited permanency plan for an infant in its custody.

(10) (a) (I) "Day treatment center" means a facility that:

• (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (II) of this paragraph (a), provides less than twenty-four-hour care for groups of five or more children who are three years of age or older, but less than twenty-one years of age; and

• (B) Provides a structured program of various types of psycho-social and behavioral treatment to prevent or reduce the need for placement of the child out of the home or community.

  • (II) Nothing in this subsection (10) prohibits a day treatment center from allowing a person who reaches twenty-one years of age after the commencement of an academic year from attending an educational program at the day treatment center through the end of the semester in which the twenty-first birthday occurs or until the person completes the educational program, whichever comes first.

    • (b) "Day treatment center" shall not include special education programs operated by a public or private school system or programs that are licensed by other rules of the department for less than twenty-four-hour care of children, such as a child care center.

(11) "Department" or "state department" means the state department of human services.

(12) "Exempt family child care home provider" means a family child care home provider who is exempt from certain provisions of this part 1 pursuant to section 26-6-103 (1)(i).

(13) "Family child care home" means a facility for child care in a place of residence of a family or person for the purpose of providing less than twenty-four-hour care for children under the age of eighteen years who are not related to the head of such home. "Family child care home" may include infant-toddler child care homes, large child care homes, experienced provider child care homes, and such other types of family child care homes designated by rules of the state board pursuant to section 26-6-106 (2)(p), as the state board deems necessary and appropriate.

(14) "Foster care home" means a home that is certified by a county department or child placement agency pursuant to section 26-6-106.3 for child care in a place of residence of a family or person for the purpose of providing twenty-four-hour family foster care for a child under the age of twenty-one years. A foster care home may include foster care for a child who is unrelated to the head of the home or foster care provided through a kinship foster care home but does not include noncertified kinship care, as defined in section 19-1-103 (78.7), C.R.S. The term includes any foster care home receiving a child for regular twenty-four-hour care and any home receiving a child from any state-operated institution for child care or from any child placement agency, as defined in subsection (7) of this section. "Foster care home" also includes those homes licensed by the department of human services pursuant to section 26-6-104 that receive neither moneys from the counties nor children placed by the counties.

(15) "Guardian" means a person who is entrusted by law with the care of a child under eighteen years of age.

(16) "Guest child care facility" means a facility operated by a ski area, as that term is defined in section 33-44-103 (6), C.R.S., where children are cared for:

• (a) While parents or persons in charge of such child are patronizing the ski area;

• (b) Fewer than ten total hours per day;

• (c) Fewer than ten consecutive days per year; and

• (d) Fewer than forty-five days in a calendar year, with thirty or fewer of such forty-five days occurring in either the winter or summer months.

(17) "Homeless youth shelter" means a facility that, in addition to other services it may provide, provides services and mass temporary shelter for a period of three days or more to youths who are at least eleven years of age, or older, and who otherwise are homeless youth as that term is defined in section 26-5.7-102 (2).

(18) "ICON" means the computerized database of court records known as the integrated Colorado online network used by the state judicial department.

(19) "Kin", for purposes of a "kinship foster care home", may be a relative of the child, a person ascribed by the family as having a family-like relationship with the child, or a person that has a prior significant relationship with the child. These relationships take into account cultural values and continuity of significant relationships with the child.

(20) "Kindergarten" means any facility providing an educational program for children only for the year preceding their entrance to the first grade, whether such facility is called a kindergarten, nursery school, preschool, or any other name.

(21) "Kinship foster care home" means a foster care home that is certified by either a county department or licensed child placement agency pursuant to section 26-6-106.3 as having met the foster care certification requirements and where the foster care of the child is provided by kin. Kinship foster care providers are eligible for foster care reimbursement. A kinship foster care home provides twenty-four-hour foster care for a child or youth under the age of twenty-one years.

(22) "License" means a legal document issued pursuant to this part 1 granting permission to operate a child care facility or child placement agency. A license may be in the form of a provisional, probationary, permanent, or time-limited license.

(23) "Licensing" means, except as otherwise provided in subsection (14) of this section, the process by which the department approves a facility or agency for the purpose of conducting business as a child care facility or child placement agency.

(24) "Medical foster care" means a program of foster care that provides home-based care for medically fragile children and youth who would otherwise be confined to a hospital or institutional setting and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• (a) Infants impacted by prenatal drug and alcohol abuse;

• (b) Children with developmental disabilities which require ongoing medical intervention;

• (c) Children and youth diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome or human immunodeficiency virus;

• (d) Children with a failure to thrive or other nutritional disorders; and

• (e) Children dependent on technology such as respirators, tracheotomy tubes, or ventilators in order to survive.

(25) (a) "Negative licensing action" means a final agency action resulting in the denial of an application, the imposition of fines, or the suspension or revocation of a license issued pursuant to this part 1 or the demotion of such a license to a probationary license.

• (b) For the purposes of this subsection (25), "final agency action" means the determination made by the department, after opportunity for hearing, to deny, suspend, revoke, or demote to probationary status a license issued pursuant to this part 1or an agreement between the department and the licensee concerning the demotion of such a license to a probationary license.

(26) (a) "Neighborhood youth organization" means a nonprofit organization that is designed to serve youth as young as six years of age and as old as eighteen years of age and that operates primarily during times of the day when school is not in session and provides research-based, age-appropriate, and character-building activities designed exclusively for the development of youth from six to eighteen years of age. These activities shall occur primarily in a facility leased or owned by the neighborhood youth organization. The activities shall occur in an environment in which youth have written parental or legal guardian consent to become a youth member of the neighborhood youth organization and to arrive at and depart from the primary location of the activity on their own accord, without supervision by a parent, legal guardian, or organization.

• (b) A neighborhood youth organization shall not include faith-based centers, organizations or programs operated by state or city parks or special districts, or departments or facilities that are currently licensed as child care centers as defined in subsection (5) of this section.

(27) "Out-of-home placement provider consortium" means a group of service providers that are formally organized and managed to achieve the goals of the county, group of counties, or mental health agency contracting for additional services other than treatment-related or child maintenance services.

(28) "Person" means any corporation, partnership, association, firm, agency, institution, or individual.

(29) "Place of residence" means the place or abode where a person actually lives and provides child care.

(30) "Public services short-term child care facility" means a facility that is operated by or for a county department of human or social services or a court and that provides care for a child:

• (a) While the child's parent or the person in charge of the child is conducting business with the county department of human or social services or participating in court proceedings;

• (b) Fewer than ten total hours per day;

• (c) Fewer than fifteen consecutive days per year; and

• (d) Fewer than forty-five days in a calendar year.

(31) "Related" means any of the following relationships by blood, marriage, or adoption: Parent, grandparent, brother, sister, stepparent, stepbrother, stepsister, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, or cousin.

(32) "Relative" means any of the following relationships by blood, marriage, or adoption: Parent, grandparent, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, brother, sister, stepparent, stepbrother, stepsister, stepson, stepdaughter, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, or cousin.

(33) "Residential child care facility" means a facility licensed by the state department pursuant to this part 1 to provide twenty-four-hour group care and treatment for five or more children operated under private, public, or nonprofit sponsorship. "Residential child care facility" includes community-based residential child care facilities, shelter facilities, and therapeutic residential child care facilities as defined in rule by the state board, and psychiatric residential treatment facilities as defined in section 25.5-4-103 (19.5), C.R.S. A residential child care facility may be eligible for designation by the executive director of the state department pursuant to article 65 of title 27, C.R.S.

(34) "Routine medications", as used in section 26-6-119, means any prescribed oral, topical, or inhaled medication, or unit dose epinephrine, that is administered pursuant to section 26-6-119.

(35) "Secure residential treatment center" means a facility operated under private ownership that is licensed by the department pursuant to this part 1 to provide twenty-four-hour group care and treatment in a secure setting for five or more children or persons up to the age of twenty-one years over whom the juvenile court retains jurisdiction pursuant to section 19-2-104 (6), C.R.S., who are committed by a court pursuant to an adjudication of delinquency or pursuant to a determination of guilt of a delinquent act or having been convicted as an adult and sentenced for an act that would be a crime if committed in Colorado, or in the committing jurisdiction, to be placed in a secure facility.

(36) (a) "Specialized group facility" means a facility sponsored and supervised by a county department or a licensed child placement agency for the purpose of providing twenty-four-hour care for three or more children, but fewer than twelve children, whose special needs can best be met through the medium of a small group and who are:

• (I) At least three years of age or older but less than eighteen years of age; or

• (II) Less than twenty-one years of age and who are placed by court order prior to their eighteenth birthday.

  • (b) "Specialized group facility" includes specialized group homes and specialized group centers.

(37) "Substitute child care provider" means a person who provides temporary care for a child or children in a licensed child care facility, including a child care center and a family child care home.

(37.5) "Substitute placement agency" means any corporation, partnership, association, firm, agency, or institution that places or that facilitates or arranges placement of short-term or long-term substitute child care providers in licensed child care facilities providing less than twenty-four-hour care.

(38) "Supervisory employee" means for purposes of section 26-6-103.5:

• (a) A person directly responsible for managing a guest child care facility and the employees of the facility; or

• (b) A person directly responsible for managing a public services short-term child care facility and the employees of the facility.

(39) "Therapeutic foster care" means a program of foster care that incorporates treatment for the special physical, psychological, or emotional needs of a child placed with specially trained foster parents, but does not include medical foster care.

(40) "Treatment foster care" means a clinically effective alternative to residential treatment facilities that combines the treatment technologies typically associated with more restrictive settings with a nurturing and individualized family environment.

(41) "Youth member" means a youth who is six years of age through eighteen years of age whose parent or legal guardian has provided written consent for the youth to participate in the activities of a neighborhood youth organization and who pays the required dues of the neighborhood youth organization.