Colorado law aimed at regulating funeral homes doesn’t allow inspection records to be public

COLORADO, USA (KRDO) - KRDO13 Investigates has found that a new Colorado law aimed at regulating and imposing inspections in funeral homes prohibits any records or documents tied to regulatory actions from being viewed publicly. Lawmakers can't explain how the provision wound up in the final draft, while families victimized by funeral home tragedies are deeply upset.

In May of 2024, Senate Bill 24-173, the "Regulate Mortuary Science Occupations" act, Governor Jared Polis signed multiple new laws into effect to help bolster the oversight of the funeral home industry.

Within the bill, however, are three paragraphs that nullify a major component of transparency. One of which, strikes out a stipulation that the records kept by a funeral director, such as registrations, licenses, and disciplinary proceedings shall be open to public inspection.

In addition, two subsequent paragraphs explain that investigations, examinations, hearings, meetings, or
proceedings are exempt from the Colorado Open Records Act (known as CORA), citing the Colorado Sunshine Law.

The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), which has been tasked with overseeing the expanded regulations of the funeral home industry in the state, confirmed these exemptions according to the law.

Those provisions in the bill can be seen in the first draft of the bill when it was introduced on March 4, 2024. Republican Representative Matthew Soper, one of the prime sponsors of SB24-173, tells KRDO13 Investigates that he can only speculate on how that language made it into his bill.

"In regards to using CORA to completely shield the public from any information in this area was definitely not our intent." the Representative said.

Soper says the bill's creation included the most amount of entities he's ever had in his career. He explained there was a main Bill Drafter, who is an attorney in the Capitol, in addition to the Funeral Directors Association, DORA, which both consisted of multiple people, and then four legislators.

"I mean, could this have been, you know, an attorney in the basement [of the capitol] to this like, 'Oh, this seems very conforming.' Absolutely," said Soper. "Could it have been someone specifically from the Funeral Directors [Association of Colorado] who were like, 'Oh, this would really protect us?' Possibly," he said.

As for how those provisions were able to avoid being changed, or detected by Soper or any of his colleagues, all the way through to when it was signed by the Governor last year, he says that the bill drafting process is exhaustive, and that the focus was primarily on the sweeping regulatory changes for the bill.

"It's easy in retrospect to say that it should have been very clear and apparent the whole time, the way it was applied. One reason why we call it the Colorado Revised Statutes and not just the statutes is that we're constantly revising, and I'd like to say that as lawmakers, we always get it perfect." Soper claimed.

In regards to why those lines would have specifically been written in the first place:

"I can only speculate, and my speculation would be [it was] not to necessarily shame a funeral home from what a funeral inspector might report versus the actions that are taken by the state to sanction a particular funeral home. Those are two different standards," he said about what would be more minor reports by inspectors that aren't a safety threat to the public.

When asked why funeral homes shouldn't fall under the same scope as hospitals or nursing homes, which both have public databases where complaints, inspections, and other documents can be viewed, Soper stated that those facilities, have not had the pressures of large-scale crimes, like the funeral home industry has had in Colorado, and should be treated a bit more carefully.

"We're trying to push those who are bad apples out of the industry so that people don't have to be thinking, can I trust this funeral home? They should know that the state has been able to step in and say, we're going to give you a level of confidence through the regulation process that we're inspecting," he stated.

Crystina Page, whose son was identified as one of nearly 200 bodies that were left decomposing within the Return to Nature funeral in 2023 in Penrose, CO, says that the fact that language was not caught by anyone involved with SB24-173 is beyond shocking.

"For something like that to happen at this stage is extremely disappointing and feels like another betrayal," said Page.

Page and other victimized families worked directly with Soper and other lawmakers throughout the process of SB24-173's drafting, as well as the other funeral home regulation laws signed by the Governor last May.

"Something like this makes me really question that are they being politicians and telling us what we want to hear in the moment to get our testimony on the floor, or are they truly behind us?" she said.

Soper affirmed that he intends on working through the rest of this session, into 2026, to create another bill to correct the accessibility to those records.

He says that since 95% or more of funeral homes in Colorado are cooperative and well-run, he believes that there needs to be another round of conversations to figure out what should be publicly available and what information should still have some exemptions through open records acts.

"I mean, if pictures or even the reports mention names or photographs of certain deceased individuals, I mean, does the public have the right to see that?" said Soper. "Because it does involve multiple layers of not just privacy rights, but certainly how those gets used in the future. There can be defamation issues. So those are large issues that will require a little bit of time to figure out," he added.