Colorado Revised Statutes Title 19. Children's Code § 19-3-403.5. Temporary shelter

(1) Temporary shelter is the temporary care of a child in a physically unrestricted setting pending a return to the child's home or placement in an appropriate alternate setting pursuant to applicable state law. Receiving temporary care in temporary shelter is voluntary and a child may leave at any time. A child may not be placed in a licensed temporary shelter facility for more than five days.

(2) A person or entity providing temporary shelter must allow for professionals to complete assessments to determine the child's treatment needs and establish plans to safely transition the child back to the care of the child's parent, guardian, legal custodian, or kin, or to another community-based facility or home, as informed by the relative information form described in section 19-2.5-1404(1)(b)(VIII). A child in temporary shelter must have access to ongoing educational services.

(3) The general assembly strongly encourages a judicial district's juvenile services planning committee, or the judicial district if the judicial district has not established a juvenile services planning committee, to consider less restrictive settings, including kinship placement, foster care, respite care, and group homes that are small, home-like, and based in the community of the sheltered child, before relying on licensed temporary shelter facilities.