How Colorado licenses assisted living — and what it does not call memory care
CDPHE licenses Colorado assisted living residences under 6 CCR 1011-1 Chapter 7. There is no separate memory-care license, and no public roster of secure environments.
Who licenses the home
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment licenses assisted living residences. The public lookup is Find and Compare Facilities. StarlynnCare uses that directory as the list of assisted living residences. A home that is only certified through Health First Colorado, or whose license is still pending, is in the file and is not published as a licensed memory-care home.
Source: CDPHE Find and Compare Facilities · Refreshed 2026-09-29 · Directory date from the CDPHE facilities layer. Citation text in this release is a records file dated May 18, 2026.
What Colorado does not publish
Chapter 7 lets an assisted living residence add a secure environment. CDPHE does not give families a roster of which buildings have done that. A name that says memory care, a chain that operates memory care elsewhere, or a listing on a consumer directory is a clue. It is not a line on the state license. StarlynnCare says a state basis is on file only when a state source is stored on the profile. For Colorado, that line stays empty.
How to read Level A through E
Part 3.9 of Chapter 7 sorts a citation by what happened and how widely it happened.
| Level | What the rule says |
|---|---|
| A | Isolated potential for more than minimal harm |
| B | A pattern of potential for more than minimal harm |
| C | Isolated actual harm |
| D | A pattern of actual harm |
| E | Immediate jeopardy |
A missing letter stays unlabeled. StarlynnCare does not guess a level from a tag number.
What the citation text is
When the records file includes the inspector's citation, the profile shows that text and a short summary. When a row has only the regulation, the profile says so. Rows dated after the file's May 18, 2026 cutoff are kept out of the public record rather than repaired.
Questions families ask
Does Colorado have a memory-care license?
No. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment licenses assisted living residences under 6 CCR 1011-1 Chapter 7. A secure environment is an optional part of that license. CDPHE does not publish a facility-level list of homes that have one.
Does dementia training make a home memory care?
No. Chapter 7 requires dementia training for staff at every assisted living residence. That requirement applies whether or not the home has a secure environment, so training is not a designation StarlynnCare can show as state verification.
What do Level A through E mean?
Chapter 7, Part 3.9 uses five levels. A is an isolated potential for harm. B is a pattern of potential harm. C is isolated actual harm. D is a pattern of actual harm. E is immediate jeopardy. These letters are not CMS nursing-home letters.
Where can I check a Colorado assisted living license?
CDPHE publishes Find and Compare Facilities. Each StarlynnCare assisted living profile links there. The complaint and citation text in this first release comes from a CDPHE records file dated May 18, 2026, not from a live inspection feed.