Colorado’s funeral home workers would need to get licenses and prove they’re qualified to handle human remains under a bill in the works at the state Capitol.
State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, said the goal of his legislation is to give the public faith in the funeral industry following several cases of misconduct that have left many families angry and reeling.
“Right now we are the only state in the nation that doesn't provide any sort of licensing or regulation of the employees that work in funeral homes,” Roberts said Tuesday. “And that is one of the reasons I strongly believe that we've had these tragedies in Colorado.”
Roberts said the bill will create a long-term structure in which funeral home and crematory employees receive training, oversight and credentialing.
He expects to introduce the proposal around the middle of this month.
Roberts started working on the bill with Republican lawmakers shortly after officials discovered 189 improperly stored bodies at the Return to Nature funeral home in southern Colorado.
A former funeral home operator in Sen. Roberts’ West Slope district was also sentenced to 180 days in jail last year for mishandling the cremains of a stillborn child.
“For every family that's been impacted by these tragedies, the state government has failed you,” Roberts said Tuesday. “The state government's failure to have a licensing program for many decades was the reason in many of these cases, or part of the reason in others, that (these tragedies) happened. And that's a failure.”
The Colorado Funeral Directors Association, an advocacy group for the state’s funeral homes, is also calling for new regulations.
In a December report, they asked lawmakers to require new funeral service professionals in Colorado to graduate from an accredited mortuary science school, pass a national test, serve a one-year apprenticeship and pass a background check.
But the group is asking lawmakers to exempt current workers in the industry from all of those requirements except for the background check and a licensing fee.
And that request is poised to spark a debate at the statehouse in the coming weeks.
Sen. Roberts said he’s expecting his proposal will land somewhere in the middle.
“That would still allow a lot of these tragedies to happen,” Roberts said of the proposal to exempt current industry workers from most licensing requirements. “We need to have some level of accountability for everyone.”
Roberts said he will try to “thread the needle” on the issue by offering professionals who have already been operating in Colorado without any violations “a way to quickly become credentialed and licensed by the state.”
“They can prove to us that they have been operating for a certain number of years and done, you know, satisfactory work,” he said.
Rep. Ty Winter, R-Trinidad, owns a family funeral home and said Thursday he’s concerned about adding new licensing requirements to Colorado’s current workers in the industry.
He said existing funeral home operators would have difficulty paying for the schooling needed to meet new licensing requirements. Such programs vary in credit hoursand cost but could run in the thousands of dollars.
“I think it would be really egregious for the state of Colorado to come in and use the big hand of government to hold down people that have been doing their job and doing it well,” he said.
He doesn’t oppose licensing requirements for new operators. He added the state should increase inspections.
Roberts said a separate bill will address funeral home inspections.
Colorado does not do regular inspections of funeral homes. Instead, the state relies on a complaint system to prompt investigations.
In 2022, Colorado spent $74,222 on the equivalent of one-quarter of a full-time employee to regulate 220 funeral homes and 77 crematories.
Roberts said he hopes the legislature can increase the funding this year to perform more inspections.
