Colorado youth camp background check requirements

The definition of "child care center" expressly includes "day camps and summer camps." So a day camp is licensed as a centre and follows rule sections 2.100, 2.200 and 2.600 — not the camp rules at 2.400. A children’s resident camp is something narrower: a facility operating three or more consecutive 24-hour days in one or more seasons, offering group living or seasonal outdoor adventure day camp programmes, for five or more children. Getting this wrong changes your ratios, your rule section, and materially changes which background checks you owe.

• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-303(3)(a) (centres)
• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-303(5)(a) (resident camps)
• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.402, 2.403

Licensing transferred to the new Colorado Department of Early Childhood effective 1 July 2022, and the old law at C.R.S. 26-6-101 to 26-6-122 was repealed outright and relocated. The operative statute is now the Child Care Licensing Act at C.R.S. 26.5-5-301 et seq. The operative rule is 8 CCR 1402-1, whose camp provisions live at section 2.400. The former camp rule, 12 CCR 2509-8 § 7.711, has been repealed. If a compliance guide cites 26-6-104 or 7.711, it is out of date — a common problem given how recent the move is.

• C.R.S. § 26.5-1-104 (HB 21-1304)
• HB 22-1295 (repeal and relocation)
• 8 CCR 1402-1

The religious exemption is narrow — "special schools or classes operated primarily for religious instruction." The rule closes the obvious workaround: faith-based programmes that combine religious instruction with child care or child development activities as part of the daily routine must obtain a licence. The separate church exemption covers only care lasting under three hours while parents attend services. The "single skill-building" path is real but excludes any programme with naptime or overnight care, and collapses the moment you add a second activity — which a camp inevitably does.

• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-304(1)(a), (c), (2)
• 8 CCR 1402-1 § 2.112(B)(1), (2)

Every owner and employee aged 16 or older must complete fingerprinting through a CBI-approved vendor — both CBI and FBI records — plus a check of the TRAILS child abuse and neglect records. For volunteers there are two independent triggers: any adult volunteer used to meet the required staff-child ratio or staff qualifications, and any volunteer who works 14 days (112 hours) or more in a calendar year. A volunteer below both thresholds does not need the checks, but the rule is emphatic that unless equally qualified they must work under the direct supervision of the camp director or a counselor and must never be left unsupervised with children.

• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-316(1)(a)(I)(A), (C)
• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.121(D), 2.120(A), 2.412(E)

This is counter-intuitive and worth stating carefully. The rule provisions requiring a National Sex Offender Registry search, and requiring separate checks in every state a person lived in over the prior five years, enumerate the licence types they apply to — child care centres, school-age child care centres, substitute placement agencies, family child care homes and qualified exempt homes. Children’s resident camps are absent from that list, and CDEC states the same limitation on its own background-checks page. Because day camps ARE centres, the practical result is inverted from what most people expect: a day camp owes the out-of-state and NSOR checks, a resident camp does not. Nothing stops a resident camp from running them voluntarily, and given multi-state seasonal hiring most should.

• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.121(D)(4)(b), 2.121(J)(1)
• CDEC Background Checks

Only in the case of a children’s resident camp or school-age centre, out-of-state persons employed in a temporary capacity for less than 90 days are exempt from fingerprinting and the TRAILS check. But the exemption requires all of: the person is from out of state, employed temporarily, the camp operates fewer than 90 days, and the person is supervised at all times by a staff member who has completed all background checks. They must also sign an affirmative statement of no conviction for child abuse, unlawful sexual offence or any felony, and the employer must conduct reference checks verifying work history plus a personal interview. This is not a general seasonal-staff exemption and it does not reach Colorado residents — the most common way it gets misapplied.

• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-316(1)(a)(I)(B)
• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.121(B), 2.120(B)

A facility shall not employ anyone convicted of child abuse, a crime of violence, an offence involving unlawful sexual behaviour, a felony with a domestic violence factual basis, or a felony involving physical assault, battery or a drug-related offence within the preceding five years. A separate pattern rule bars three or more convictions of third-degree assault or domestic-violence misdemeanours in ten years, five misdemeanours of any type with at least two of that kind, or seven misdemeanours of any type. "Convicted" expressly includes deferred judgments, deferred prosecutions and pleas of nolo contendere. If you hire someone with a non-barring felony or DV misdemeanour conviction, you must inform the Department within 15 calendar days.

• 8 CCR 1402-1 § 2.121(D)(6), (7)
• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-309(4)(a)

Before working with campers, all staff members and regular volunteers must complete a Department-approved training on child abuse prevention covering signs, symptoms, and how, where and when to report — renewed ANNUALLY. Standard precautions training is also annual, and the camp must itself develop and deliver a premises-safety training covering wildlife, water, traffic and hazardous materials. One staff member per 30 campers must hold current approved First Aid and CPR; camps more than 30 minutes from EMS need Wilderness First Aid. And whenever camp is in session with campers on property, at least one health care worker actively licensed by the Colorado Medical Board or State Board of Nursing must be at the camp 24 hours a day.

• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.411(A)–(E), 2.412(F)(2)

For overnight campers: ages 5 through 7, one counselor per 6; ages 8 through 10, per 8; ages 11 through 13, per 10; ages 14 and older, per 12 — maintained at all times. A camp director must be 21 or older; a counselor 18, or 17 with a diploma or GED; an assistant counselor 16, counted toward ratio but never left unsupervised with children. A counselor-in-training may be 14 but must NOT be counted in ratio. Children under six who live at or visit the camp need a dedicated caregiver who is not counted in ratio.

• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.412, 2.413(A), (C), (E)

Camp staff are not named in Colorado’s mandatory reporter list. Coverage comes indirectly: the list includes a worker in any facility licensed under part 3 of article 5 of title 26.5, which is the Child Care Licensing Act. So workers at a licensed camp are mandatory reporters. The corollary matters for anyone operating outside licensure — that provision does not reach them, though other categories may (school employee, clergy, or paid personnel of a private sports organisation). Wilful violation is a class 2 misdemeanour plus liability for damages. Independently, the rule requires every facility to have each staff member read and sign a statement defining abuse and neglect and outlining their personal reporting responsibility.

• C.R.S. § 19-3-304(2)(m), (4)
• 8 CCR 1402-1 § 2.126(A)

Report in writing to CDEC within 24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays): any fatality of a child, staff member or volunteer; any injury to a child requiring attention by a health care professional, whether or not treatment was given; a reportable disease; any allegation of abuse or neglect resulting in a mandatory report; any fire attended by a fire department; any major security threat; drug or alcohol incidents needing outside response; an assault reported to law enforcement; a suicide attempt requiring emergency intervention; felony theft or property destruction; and any police or sheriff contact with the facility at all. Note also that the rule bars interviewing staff or children about a specific allegation until the county department or law enforcement has completed its interviews.

• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.124(A)(1), 2.126(D)(3), (D)(4)

Camps use the centre fee schedule: $200 for 5 to 15 children; for 16 to 30, a $175 base plus $3 per child of capacity; for 31 or more, a $300 base plus $3 per child, capped at $1,800. The fee is due at least 60 calendar days before your anticipated opening date, and CDEC advises allowing 60 to 90 days for the whole process. Licences do not expire but require an annual compliance declaration and fee. Inspection by the local health department or CDPHE and by the local fire department is required before original licensure and at least every two years. And note that a city or county may impose and enforce higher standards than the state — check locally before assuming this page is the ceiling.

• 8 CCR 1402-1 §§ 2.111(A)–(C), 2.107, 2.122(A), (B)
• C.R.S. § 26.5-5-316(3)(b)