Colorado Wraps Up Its Funeral Home Regulatory Overhaul

The last three years have been a long, strange, and most likely humbling journey for Colorado lawmakers as they have worked to create and implement rules and regulations governing the state’s lax oversight of the deathcare profession — but it looks like their trip may finally be coming to a close.

House Bill 26-1258, which was signed into law on June 4 by Gov. Jared Polis, has been dubbed the “cleanup” bill as it closes the loop on a regulatory overhaul that started with the 2023 discovery of nearly 190 decomposing bodies at the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose. Last week, the law was formally adopted by Colorado’s Division of Professions and Occupations, (DORA), and it is expected to take full effect on January 1, 2027.

Recapping the regulations

The Return to Nature case was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” when it came to Colorado’s lack of rules for deathcare establishments and practitioners. In 2020, authorities arrested the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and her mother for their part in an illegal body-part-brokering scheme. During the same year, a county coroner was sentenced to six months in jail for abuse of a corpse and surrendered the licenses to his five funeral homes.

These very public tragedies instigated the following series of legislation:

HB24-1335 — “Sunset Continue Mortuary Science Code Regulation.” Signed by Gov. Polis in late May 2024. Continued and restructured the state’s mortuary science regulatory program.

SB24-173 — “Regulate Mortuary Science Occupations.” Signed the same day as HB24-1335. Established Colorado’s first licensure requirements for funeral directors, embalmers, and related practitioners, plus expanded DORA inspection authority.

HB26-1258 — “Changes to Practices Relating to Death.” The cleanup/implementation bill — consolidates licensing categories, adds the associate-license pathway, raises the corpse-abuse penalty, and streamlines fee structures flagged as burdensome under SB24-173.

Questioning HB26-1258

The “clean-up” bill, HB26-1258 fills many of the gaps left open by the previous legislation. The highlights include:

One “Funeral Establishment” license instead of separate Funeral Home/Crematory registrations;
New associate license track starting in 2027 for people building hours toward full licensure;
New “cremationist” and “natural reductionist” license categories;
$1 million liability insurance requirement and mandatory annual inspections (per KRDO);
Prohibition on stacking bodies; dignified/sanitary transport requirements; and
Abuse-of-corpse penalty raised from a Class 6 to a Class 5 felony.

Overall, members of the deathcare profession appreciate the lawmakers’ attention and efforts to keep the bad apples out of the cart. However, a few points of HB26-1258 are receiving some pushback from funeral home owners.

Jimmy Brown, co-owner of five locations of Brown Funeral Homes, is concerned about the limitations the “one funeral establishment” license would cause for practitioners and the families they serve.

“Brown said the draft regulations would limit affiliate locations to little more than administrative offices where families can make arrangements, but not gather for small visitations or receive remains,” according to 9News.

Families who were affected by the Return to Nature tragedy are pleased with the proposed treatment of affiliate locations, which some believe will keep funeral homes accountable.

“We keep getting very close to what we want and what we need as consumers, or as victims who were consumers, and then it feels like it takes a giant step back by either being watered down or finding loopholes,” Crystina Page, whose son was supposed to have been cremated by Return to Nature in 2019, told 9News.