Colorado Code § 26-2-103

Definitions
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As used in this article 2 and article 1 of this title 26, unless the
context otherwise requires:
(1) "Activities of daily living" means the basic self-care activities, including eating,
bathing, dressing, transferring from bed to chair, bowel and bladder control, and independent
ambulation.
(1.3) "Applicant" means any individual or family who individually or through a
designated representative or someone acting responsibly for the individual or family has applied
for benefits under the programs of public assistance administered or supervised by the state
department pursuant to this article 2.
(1.5) Repealed.
(2) "Assistance payments" means financial assistance (other than medical assistance
covered by the "Colorado Medical Assistance Act") provided pursuant to rules and regulations
adopted by the state department and includes pensions, grants, and other money payments to or
on behalf of recipients.
(3) "Blind" means any individual who has not more than ten percent visual acuity in the
better eye with correction, or not more than 20/200 central visual acuity in the better eye with
correction, or a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field
subtends an angle no greater than twenty degrees.
(4) "Dependent child" means:
(a) A needy child under the age of eighteen who has been deprived of parental support or
care by reason of the death, the continued absence from the home, the physical or mental
incapacity, or the unemployment of a parent, as determined under standards prescribed by the
state department through rules and regulations, and who is living with a person related to such
child within the fifth degree in a place of residence maintained by one or more of such relatives
as his, her, or their own home, and whose relatives or other person liable under the law for the
child's support are not able to provide adequate care and support of such child without assistance
payments under a program for aid to families with dependent children; or
(b) A needy child who would meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this subsection
(4) except for his removal from a home of a relative specified in said paragraph (a) by a judicial
determination that continued residence in such home would be contrary to the best interests of
such child, when all of the following conditions are present:
(I) The placement and care of such child are the responsibility of the state department or
a county department;
(II) Such child has been placed in a foster care home or child care institution as a result
of such judicial determination;
(III) Assistance payments for such child were received under this article in or for the
month in which court proceedings leading to such determination were initiated, or such
payments would have been received for such month if application had been made therefor, or, in
the case of a child who had been living with a relative specified in paragraph (a) of this
subsection (4) within six months prior to the month in which such proceedings were initiated,
such payments would have been received in or for such month if in such month he had been
living with and removed from the home of such relative and application had been made therefor;
or
(c) A person otherwise meeting the requirements of paragraph (a) of this subsection (4)
who is under the age of nineteen years and a full-time student in regular attendance at a
secondary school or enrolled in an equivalent level of vocational or technical training designed
to train him for gainful employment and who is reasonably expected to complete the program of
such secondary school or such technical or vocational training before reaching the age of
nineteen.
(5) "Essential person" means a person who resides with a recipient of assistance
payments under a program for aid to the blind or aid to the needy disabled and, pursuant to rules
and regulations adopted by the state department, is determined to be rendering a service to the
recipient which, if the recipient were living alone, would have to be provided for him.
(5.3) "Instrumental activities of daily living" means home management and independent
living activities such as cooking, cleaning, using a telephone, shopping, doing laundry, providing
transportation, and managing money.
(5.5) (Deleted by amendment, L. 97, p. 1230, § 14, effective July 1, 1997.)
(5.7) "Legal immigrant" means an individual who is not a citizen or national of the
United States and who was lawfully admitted to the United States by the immigration and
naturalization service, or any successor agency, as an actual or prospective permanent resident or
whose extended physical presence in the United States is known to and allowed by the
immigration and naturalization service, or any successor agency.
(6) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2006, p. 1504, § 47, effective June 1, 2006.)
(7) "Public assistance" means assistance payments, food stamps, and social services
provided to or on behalf of eligible recipients through programs administered or supervised by
the state department, either in cooperation with the federal government or independently without
federal aid, pursuant to this article 2. Public assistance includes programs for old age pensions,
except for the old age pension health and medical care program, and also includes the Colorado
works program, aid to the needy disabled, aid to the blind, child welfare services, food stamps
supplementation to households not receiving public assistance found eligible for food stamps
under rules adopted by the state board, expenses of treatment to prevent blindness or restore
eyesight as defined in section 26-2-121, and funeral and final disposition expenses as described
in section 26-2-129.
(7.5) "Qualified alien" shall have the meaning ascribed to that term in section 431 (b) of
the federal "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996", Public
Law 104-193, as amended.
(8) "Recipient" means any individual or family who is receiving or has received benefits
from the programs of public assistance administered or supervised by the state department
pursuant to the provisions of this article.
(9) "Resident" means any individual who is living, other than temporarily, within the
state of Colorado, or a particular county therein, voluntarily and with the intention of making his
home there. "Resident" includes any unemancipated child whose parents, or other person entitled
to custody, live within such state or county. Temporary absences from such state or county shall
not cause an individual to lose his status as a resident if he has an intent to return and has not
abandoned his residence.
(10) "Social security act" means the federal "Social Security Act" and amendments
thereto.
(11) (a) "Social services" means services and payments for services available, directly or
indirectly, through the staff of the state department of human services and county departments of
human or social services or through state designated agencies, where applicable, for the benefit
of eligible persons. The services are provided pursuant to rules adopted by the state board.
"Social services" may include day care, homemaker services, foster care, and other services to
individuals or families for the purpose of attaining or retaining capabilities for maximum self-
care, self-support, and personal independence and services to families or members of families for
the purpose of preserving, rehabilitating, reuniting, or strengthening the family. At such time as
Title XX of the social security act becomes effective with respect to federal reimbursements,
"social services" may include child care services, protective services for children and adults,
services for children and adults in foster care, services related to the management and
maintenance of the home, day care services for adults, transportation services, training and
related services, employment services, information, referral, and counseling services, the
preparation and delivery of meals, health support services, and appropriate combinations of
services designed to meet the special needs of children, persons who are elderly, persons with
intellectual and developmental disabilities, persons who are blind, persons with behavioral or
mental health disorders, persons with a physical disability, and persons with substance use
disorders.
(b) [Editor's note: This version of subsection (11)(b) is effective until July 1, 2025.]
"Social services" does not include medicaid services unless those services are delegated to the
state department. "Social services" does not include medical services covered by the old age
pension health and medical care program, the children's basic health plan, or the Colorado
indigent care program. "Social services" does not include child care assistance provided through
the Colorado child care assistance program pursuant to part 1 of article 4 of title 26.5.
(b) [Editor's note: This version of subsection (11)(b) is effective July 1, 2025.] "Social
services" does not include medicaid services unless those services are delegated to the state
department. "Social services" does not include medical services covered by the old age pension
health and medical care program, or the children's basic health plan. "Social services" does not
include child care assistance provided through the Colorado child care assistance program
pursuant to part 1 of article 4 of title 26.5.
(12) and (13) Repealed.
(14) (a) "Total disability", for the purpose of providing public assistance to persons not
receiving federal financial benefits pursuant to Title XVI of the social security act, means a
physical or mental impairment which is disabling and which, because of other factors such as
age, training, experience, and social setting, substantially precludes the person having such
disability from engaging in a useful occupation as a homemaker or as a wage earner in any
employment which exists in the community for which he has competence.
(b) For the purpose of the state-funded supplement to persons receiving federal financial
benefits pursuant to Title XVI of the social security act, federal definitions promulgated pursuant
to the said Title XVI shall apply.

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