§ 19-3-403.5 — Temporary shelter

Colorado § 19-3-403.5

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 19: Children's
• Art.: Dependency and Neglect

Text

(1) Temporary shelter is the temporary care
of a child in a physically unrestricted setting pending a return to the child's home or
placement in an appropriate alternate setting pursuant to applicable state law.
Receiving temporary care in temporary shelter is voluntary and a child may leave at
any time. A child may not be placed in a licensed temporary shelter facility for more
than five days.

(2) A person or entity providing temporary shelter must allow for
professionals to complete assessments to determine the child's treatment needs
and establish plans to safely transition the child back to the care of the child's
parent, guardian, legal custodian, or kin, or to another community-based facility or
home, as informed by the relative information form described in section 19-2.5-1404
(1)(b)(VIII). A child in temporary shelter must have access to ongoing educational
services.

(3) The general assembly strongly encourages a judicial district's juvenile
services planning committee, or the judicial district if the judicial district has not
established a juvenile services planning committee, to consider less restrictive
settings, including kinship placement, foster care, respite care, and group homes
that are small, home-like, and based in the community of the sheltered child, before
relying on licensed temporary shelter facilities.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2022: Entire section added, (HB 22-1056), ch. 383, p. 2740, � 3, effective June 7.