Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a pair of payments that may deliver Colorado in keeping with different states in regulating the funeral residence and mortuary business.
SB24-173 would require, for the primary time, that funeral residence administrators and folks holding different business jobs acquire licenses by passing background checks, incomes a level in mortuary science and apprenticing beneath a seasoned employee.
The second invoice, HB24-1335, requires state regulators to conduct routine inspections of amenities — one thing they’ve by no means had the ability to do.
The governor’s signatures come after a string of horrifying circumstances throughout the state in recent times, together with the unlawful sale of physique elements, findings of tons of of decomposing our bodies and the dispersal of pretend ashes to grieving households.
Colorado’s laws over the funeral residence business lengthy have been the weakest within the nation.
The state had been the one one within the nation that didn’t license funeral administrators or require some certification. State officers haven’t usually inspected funeral houses and solely devoted one-quarter of 1 full-time place to control 220 funeral houses and 77 crematories.
The Colorado Funeral Administrators Affiliation, the business group representing funeral houses, labored with lawmakers on the payments and agreed it was gone time to deliver the state in keeping with the remainder of the nation.
Lawmakers additionally tackled coroner regulation this session.
HB24-1100, signed into legislation in April, requires coroners of counties with a inhabitants exceeding 150,000 to be forensic pathologists or licensed dying investigators.
Beforehand, coroners had few qualification necessities: The particular person needed to be 18 or older, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the county she or he served and don’t have any felony convictions. There was no requirement to have a medical diploma or any earlier coaching associated to dying investigations.
{Qualifications} for coroners in smaller Colorado counties, although, will stay the identical.
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