Colorado

Colorado

Final grade: C

Exclusion Grade

C-

Relevance Grade

A-

Due Process Grade

F

Strengths

  • Permits boards to only use directly related crimes and requires them to consider evidence of rehabilitation.
  • Bans boards from considering arrests as well as sealed and expunged records.

Areas of Improvement

  • Strengthen safeguards for due process by requiring a petition process and placing the burden of proof on the state.
  • Extend state’s protections to education and positions that work with “vulnerable persons.”

With its C+ grade, Colorado ranks towards the middle of the pack. The state ranks highly in the Relevance category, but a lack of protections for Due Process and a weak Exclusion grade brings its final grade down. In 2022, Colorado did pass a reform that finally requires boards to provide written notice to applicants and guarantees the right to appeal a denied license.  

Colorado excludes several fields and organizations from its main law for ex-offenders, including education, the public employees’ retirement association, and the Department of Revenue. It also excludes any and all licenses for jobs working with “vulnerable persons,” defined as those who are “susceptible to abuse or mistreatment because of the individual’s circumstances, including but not limited to the individual’s age, disability, frailty, mental illness, developmental disability, or ill health.”

This means ex-offenders are barred not only from working as medical personnel or counselors, but also from working in “direct contact” with vulnerable persons in positions like “maintenance personnel, housekeeping staff, kitchen staff, and security personnel.” Applicants may face permanent disqualification if they were convicted of any violent crime or one of several listed felonies, while those convicted of any unspecified crime or a listed misdemeanor have drastically fewer protections than under Colorado’s main law.

Statute: Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 24-5-101, 27-90-111 (2019)

Exclusion
Overarching ban on blanket bans Yes, but excludes education, positions that have “direct contact with vulnerable persons”
Ban on considering arrest records Yes
Ban on considering post-conviction relief records Yes, sealed records
Time limit No limit
Ban on vague, discretionary character standards No
Relevance
Relationship between the crime and the license sought “Whether there is a direct relationship between the conviction and the position’s duties and responsibilities and the bearing, if any, the conviction may have on the applicant’s fitness or ability to perform”
Required factors for consideration
Rehabilitation Yes
Time elapsed since crime was committed Yes
Age when crime was committed No
Employment History No
Testimonials No
Due Process
Petition Process No
Burden of Proof Both unspecified
Right to appeal No
Written notice requirement No