Does Your Daycare Use Cameras? A New Bill Wants You to Know Exactly Who Is Watching.

The Bottom Line

If your kid is in daycare—or if you run a child care facility—the state is changing what needs to be in your welcome packet. A new law requires child care centers to clearly disclose their video surveillance policies and explicitly remind parents that staff are legally obligated to report suspected child abuse. It's all about putting everyone on the same page regarding privacy, safety, and legal duties before a crisis happens.

What This Bill Actually Does

Most of us understand that child care centers are heavily regulated spaces, but SB26-050 tackles two highly sensitive areas that often lack clear, upfront communication between facilities and parents: suspected child abuse and video surveillance. By amending the Colorado Revised Statutes, this legislation establishes strict transparency requirements for the policies and procedures that child care centers hand to parents upon enrollment.

First, the bill mandates a clear disclosure regarding mandatory reporting. In Colorado, child care workers are legally required under state law to report any reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect to child protective services or law enforcement. While this requirement isn't new, many parents aren't fully aware of it until they find themselves under investigation. The new law requires child care centers to explicitly state in their written policies that their staff members are mandatory reporters. This prevents providers from having to awkwardly explain the law after a report has been made and ensures parents understand the legal boundaries their caregivers operate within.

Second, the legislation takes on the modern reality of daycare cameras. If a center uses video recording equipment, it can no longer rely on a generic "smile, you're on camera" sticker on the front door. The facility must provide a detailed written statement disclosing the use of cameras and their specific policies surrounding the generated footage. This must include:

• Recording, retention, and disposal policies: Exactly how long the video is kept before it is deleted or overwritten.
• Privacy protections: How the facility safeguards the footage from unauthorized viewing or cyber threats.
• Parental and legal access: Clear rules on whether, when, and how parents or attorneys can request to see the footage (for example, if a child comes home with a mystery bruise).

Ultimately, the bill doesn't dictate what a center's video policy must be—it simply demands that a policy exists, is documented, and is handed to parents proactively.

What It Means for You

If you are a parent or guardian relying on a child care center, this legislation is essentially a consumer protection upgrade for your family's privacy and peace of mind. Dropping your kid off at daycare requires a massive amount of trust, and knowing exactly how a facility handles sensitive situations can help you make better decisions about where to enroll your child. The new disclosure requirements will go into effect on August 12, 2026, which means you should expect an updated parent handbook from your provider right around the time the fall school season kicks off.

On the video recording front, this bill forces a conversation that every parent should be having anyway. Many modern daycares offer live webcam feeds or record the playground for liability reasons. But what happens to that data? Under this new law, you won't have to guess. You will receive a written policy detailing exactly how long the center keeps video footage and who gets to look at it. If your child gets into a scuffle with another toddler and you want to see the tape, the center's policy will outline exactly whether you are allowed to view it, preventing ad-hoc decisions made by flustered managers in the heat of the moment.

As for the mandatory reporter disclosure, it's important to view this as a clarification of the relationship between you and your child's caregivers. If a daycare worker spots an unusual bruise or hears a concerning comment from your child, state law gives them zero discretion—they must report it, or risk losing their own license and facing criminal charges. By putting this legal obligation in writing upfront, the state is trying to depersonalize the reporting process. It ensures you know that if a report is filed, the center isn't necessarily accusing you of being a bad parent; they are simply following a strict legal mandate designed to protect Colorado's most vulnerable kids. Moving forward, keep an eye out for these updated policies, and don't hesitate to ask your provider how they secure the video data they capture of your family.

What It Means for Your Business

If you own, operate, or manage a child care center, a preschool, or even a municipal recreation center that provides licensed child care, this legislation assigns you a mandatory administrative homework project. Fortunately, it doesn't impose new taxes or require you to buy expensive new equipment, but it absolutely requires you to tighten up your legal paperwork. Before the effective date of August 12, 2026, you need to audit and update your parent handbooks, enrollment contracts, and operational procedures to ensure full compliance. The Department of Early Childhood will be looking for these specific disclosures during their routine licensing checks and renewals.

The video recording requirement is where you'll need to do the heavy lifting. The state is no longer accepting vague acknowledgments of security cameras. If you have cameras in the classrooms, hallways, or playgrounds, you must draft a comprehensive video recording policy. You'll need to sit down with your legal counsel or management team and nail down the specifics:

• Data Retention: Are your cameras tied to a cloud server that automatically deletes footage after 14 days, or do you keep physical hard drives for six months? Pick a timeline and put it in writing.
• Access Limitations: When a divorced parent demands footage to see who picked up a child, or an angry parent wants to see exactly how their kid got bitten, what is your standard operating procedure? Having a firm, written policy protects your staff from being bullied into showing footage that might violate the privacy of other children in the room.
• Disposal Methods: Explain how you securely wipe or destroy old data to prevent unauthorized leaks.

The mandatory reporter requirement is much simpler but equally crucial for liability protection. You must add explicit language stating that all your child care workers are mandatory reporters under C.R.S. 19-3-304. Having this in your signed enrollment documents serves as a powerful liability shield. When an angry parent threatens to sue your facility for defamation because a staff member called child protective services, you can point directly to the disclosure they signed, proving they were aware your staff was legally obligated to make that call. Use this time before the law takes effect to consult with your attorney, draft rock-solid policies, and seamlessly integrate them into your 2026 enrollment packets.

Follow the Money

From a taxpayer perspective, the fiscal footprint of this legislation is essentially zero. The official fiscal note confirms that the bill requires no new state appropriations and will not impact state revenue.

There will be a minimal, unquantifiable workload increase for local governments and state entities that operate their own child care facilities—like university daycares or municipal recreation centers—as they will have to spend administrative time updating their internal policies and parent handbooks. Similarly, the Department of Early Childhood will absorb a minor increase in its daily workload to communicate these new requirements to licensed facilities and check for the updated language during standard licensing inspections. All of these administrative tasks will be handled within existing departmental budgets.

Where This Bill Stands

SB26-050 is currently Signed Into Law. The latest official action came on 04/06/2026: Governor Signed.

That means the legislative process is complete and the bill is now law. The remaining questions are about implementation timing and how agencies, businesses, or local governments respond.