People in Interest of L.R.S., 89CA0416

• Decision Date: 08 February 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89CA0416,89CA0416
• Citation: 791 P.2d 1215
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner-Appellee, In the Interest of L.R.S., a Child, and Concerning M.S., Mother, and C.S., Father, Respondents-Appellants. . II
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

Page 1215

791 P.2d 1215

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner-Appellee,

In the Interest of L.R.S., a Child,

and Concerning M.S., Mother, and C.S., Father, Respondents-Appellants.

No. 89CA0416.

Colorado Court of Appeals,

Div. II.

Feb. 8, 1990.

Rehearing Denied March 8, 1990.

Certiorari Granted June 11, 1990.

Kathleen H. Taylor, Craig, for petitioner-appellee.

David M. Waite, guardian ad litem.

Calvin Lee, Glenwood Springs, for respondents-appellants.

Opinion by Judge NEY.

In this dependency and neglect action, respondents, M.S. and C.S. (parents), appeal from the trial court's order requiring them to reimburse the Department of Social Services the entire cost of their child's placement in a residential facility. We affirm.

School authorities recommended that L.R.S., a sixteen-year-old developmentally disabled child, be placed in a residential facility equipped to provide suitable treatment for handicapped children. Because the parents could not afford to pay the costs of a residential facility as those costs were incurred the school authorities suggested, and the parents requested that L.R.S. be adjudicated dependent and neglected.

The parents initially agreed to pay $221 per month during the time of placement as their share of the costs of residential care. The monthly fee was determined pursuant to a sliding fee schedule promulgated by the Department of Social Services. Under that schedule, the parents were initially charged only during the months that the child was in the facility.

The Department subsequently modified its reimbursement policy requiring the parents to reimburse the entire cost of placement estimated by the Department to be $54,000, at monthly installments of $264. The parents objected to the assessment for the reimbursement of the entire cost of placement, and a hearing was held to determine the validity of the Department's action. The trial court affirmed the Department's order requiring full payment of the cost of L.R.S.'s care in monthly installments of $264. This appeal followed.

The parents assert that the trial court erred in interpreting the regulations of the Department of Social Services and Colorado statutes as authorizing the assessment of the entire cost of child placement. We disagree.

The trial court appropriately limited its ruling to the issue of whether the Department's decision to seek full reimbursement from parents in monthly installments established by Social Services Rules 7.802.712 and 713, 12 Code Colo.Reg. 2509-9, was authorized by the applicable Colorado statutes.

The parents do not argue that the $264 monthly assessment is not within their ability to pay or contrary to the formula developed by the Department but that the policy requiring them to pay the entire cost is an erroneous interpretation of the statutes. Although argued by the parties, policy considerations were properly not addressed by the trial court. State courts cannot, under the pretense of an actual case, assume powers vested in other branches of the government. Wimberly v. Ettenberg, 194 Colo. 163, 570 P.2d 535 (1977).

Relying on three statutory provisions, the trial court correctly determined that the obligation rests upon the parents of the child to make monthly payments, based on the parents' ability to pay, until placement costs are paid in full or until further order of the court.

Section 14-7-102, C.R.S. (1987 Repl.Vol. 6B) authorizes the state or county at whose expense a child is kept to recover from the parent:

"for the support of such child such sum for the care, support, and maintenance of the child as may be...