What needs to change in Colorado.

• Clergy-penitent carveout via § 13-90-107(1)(c)

  C.R.S. § 19-3-304(2)(aa)(II) provides that the clergy reporting duty does not apply when a person learns of abuse during a communication protected from examination under § 13-90-107(1)(c), unless the person also learns of it from another source. Section 13-90-107(1)(c) shields a confidential communication made to a clergy member, minister, priest, or rabbi in a professional capacity in the course of discipline expected by the religious body, and both the clergy member and the penitent must consent before disclosure. This is the gap UCO targets: clergy are expressly named reporters, but the confession is exempt.

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• § 19-3-311 abrogates other privileges but not clergy-penitent

  C.R.S. § 19-3-311 expressly abrogates the physician-patient, nurse-patient, school-psychologist, licensed-mental-health-professional, and husband-wife privileges as grounds for excluding evidence in proceedings that result from a § 19-3-304 report. The clergy-penitent privilege is conspicuously absent from that abrogation list. That structural contrast is the cleanest legal evidence that preserving the clergy carveout was a deliberate policy choice.

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• 2025 reform (HB25-1188) overhauled reporting but left the clergy carveout intact

  HB25-1188, signed in 2025 with most provisions effective September 1, 2025, moved the reporting deadline to as soon as reasonably possible but within 24 hours, limited the duty to information learned in a reporter's professional capacity, and removed victim's advocates from the reporter list. It did not amend the clergy-penitent carveout in § 19-3-304(2)(aa)(II), so the gap persists after Colorado's most recent system-wide reform.

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What it takes to close the gap.

How Colorado got here.

• 2022
  HB22-1240 creates the Mandatory Reporting Task Force

  The Legislature created a task force, housed in the Office of the Child Protection Ombudsman, to study Colorado's mandatory-reporting laws, with a final report due January 1, 2025.

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• 2025
  Task Force report; HB25-1188 enacted

  The task force's January 2025 report carried 18 recommendations, none of which targeted the clergy-penitent carveout. The implementing bill, HB25-1188, was signed in 2025 (most provisions effective September 1, 2025) and likewise left the clergy carveout untouched.

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Litigation shaping the law.

• Dill v. People

  927 P.2d 1315 (Colo. 1996)·1996

  Colorado Supreme Court holding that § 19-3-311 abrogates the psychologist-patient privilege for information that is the basis of a child-abuse report under § 19-3-304, and that testifying about such a report does not waive the privilege as to other matters. Directly relevant to the preserved classification: it confirms the Legislature's deliberate, selective approach, abrogating the privileges listed in § 19-3-311 while the clergy-penitent privilege, housed in § 13-90-107(1)(c) and left off that list, survives.

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• People v. Tucker

  232 P.3d 194 (Colo. App. 2009)·2009

  Colorado Court of Appeals decision interpreting what counts as a confidential communication under § 13-90-107, the statute that defines the clergy-penitent privilege incorporated by reference into § 19-3-304(2)(aa)(II). The court held that a communication is confidential when made in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable expectation that it will be treated as confidential, defining the operational test for when a clergy member may invoke the privilege to avoid reporting.

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Public-record sources UCO is tracking.

Always verify against the underlying statute or filing before quoting.

• Colorado General Assembly, Office of Legislative Legal Services· 2024
  Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, Title 19 (Children's Code) — full text

  Canonical state-published PDF of Title 19. § 19-3-304(2)(aa) names clergy as mandatory reporters and defines the term; (2)(aa)(II) carves out communications privileged under § 13-90-107(1)(c). § 19-3-311 abrogates other professional privileges but not clergy-penitent.

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• Colorado Revised Statutes (Justia mirror)· 2024
  C.R.S. § 19-3-311 — Evidence not privileged

  The companion privilege-abrogation section. Strips physician, nurse, mental-health, school-psychologist, and spousal privileges for § 19-3-304 reports while deliberately omitting the clergy-penitent privilege. The structural gap evidence.

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• Colorado General Assembly· 2025
  HB25-1188 — Mandatory reporter reforms (2025)

  Official bill page for Colorado's 2025 mandatory-reporting overhaul (24-hour deadline, professional-capacity scope, victim's-advocate removal). Confirms the clergy carveout was not amended.

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• Child Welfare Information Gateway, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau· 2023
  Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect (State Statutes)

  Federal HHS compilation listing Colorado among the states that enumerate clergy as mandated reporters while granting a limited clergy-penitent privilege. Corroborates the expressly-named and preserved classifications.

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• Office of Colorado's Child Protection Ombudsman· 2025-01
  Mandatory Reporting Task Force Final Report

  Final report of the 34-member task force created by HB22-1240. Contains 18 recommendations across 19 directives. A full-text search of the report confirms no recommendation addressed the clergy-penitent carveout in C.R.S. section 19-3-304(2)(aa)(II) or section 13-90-107(1)(c).

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