The State Department is authorized to hear and decide three kinds of appeal or waiver requests by applicants or licensees: Emergency Hardship Appeals, Hardship Waivers, and Stringency Appeals, as outlined in Section 7.701.13.
An Emergency Hardship Appeal is requested when there is an urgent, significant, and unexpected situation outside the applicant or licensee’s control. Certain circumstances that would warrant an emergency appeal would be natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, mold outbreaks, acts of nature or accidents resulting in structural damage to the child care facility, and for foster care homes, any immediate child-specific emergency placement situation or situation posing a safety risk to the child in out-of-home placement
A Hardship Waiver is requested when any applicant or licensee who has applied for or been issued a license to operate a child care facility or child placement agency submits an appeal to any rule or standard which, in his or her opinion, poses an undue hardship on the person, facility or community.” An “undue hardship” is defined as a situation where compliance with the rule creates a substantial, unnecessary burden on the applicant or licensee’s business operation or the families or community it serves, which reasonable means cannot remedy. An undue hardship does not include the normal cost of operating the business.
A Stringency Appeal is requested when any applicant or licensee who has applied for or been issued a license to operate a child care facility or child placement agency has a right to appeal, pursuant to § 26-6-106(3), C.R.S., any violation of a child care licensing rule cited in a report of inspection, on the basis that the rule has been too stringently applied by a representative of the State Department. “Stringency,” as used in this Section 7.701.13, means the child care licensing representative applied rules too strictly, improperly, or unfairly.
