By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
A child in Colorado can sign up for state-funded therapy at age 12 without a parent knowing. That is not a loophole. It is how the program is built.
The program is called I Matter.
It offers up to six free counseling sessions to any young person 18 or under, or up to 21 for those receiving special-education services, and is delivered mostly by telehealth.
According to a report released this month by the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, the state funded a youth-targeted advertising push built around one message. Youth 12 and older don’t need a parent to sign off.
A consent waiver written into law
Do No Harm reviewed 279 files obtained through the Colorado Open Records Act. Its report covers several state programs.
The program was created in 2021 by HB21-1258, a pandemic-response measure the legislature passed to get counseling to kids fast.
In May 2024, SB24-001 extended it through June 2034. The program’s own site describes the 2024 action as making the program permanent. It is run by the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration.
The consent structure sits on top of a law passed before the pandemic.
In 2019, HB19-1120 lowered the age at which a Colorado minor can seek psychotherapy on their own from 15 to 12.
Under the statute, now codified at C.R.S. 12-245-203.5, a mental-health professional may treat a child 12 or older without a parent’s consent, provided the minor is knowingly seeking the service and the provider finds it clinically necessary.
The same statute tells the provider to discuss involving a parent. It also requires the provider to document any attempt to notify one, or to record why notifying a parent would be inappropriate.
I Matter is built on that rule.
Youth 12 and older can enroll without a parent’s permission or knowledge. Children 11 and under need a parent to sign up for them, though the report notes the program’s method for verifying that consent is not spelled out in the records.
Selling the confidentiality
The marketing came with a multimillion-dollar contract.
Do No Harm reports that from 2021 to 2024, I Matter used close to $5 million of its state budget to advertise the program to minors.
The contract went to the Amelie Company, a Denver marketing firm, and ran a total value of $4,701,834 across three fiscal years. It was signed by Michelle Barnes, then the executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services.
The contract also carried a provision tied to the federal American Rescue Plan’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, award number SLFRF0126. Publications produced with those funds must note federal support, which leads Do No Harm to conclude at least part of the marketing was paid with federal pandemic-recovery money.
In 2023, Amelie subcontracted a social-media influencer campaign to a firm called Find Your Influence at a cost of $25,000.
The stated goal, per the report, was to drive Colorado adolescents to the I Matter website through “the authentic voice of Gen Z influencers.” Selection criteria called for creators whose main audience was ages 12 to 18.
The influencers were handed talking points.
One of them read that the program is confidential and that “no parent/guardian consent is required for youth 12+.” Another, aimed at parent-focused influencers, told them that sometimes youth “need to talk to someone else (a professional, not a parent).”
One influencer who posted for the campaign was a Colorado public high-school teacher, according to the report, who said she had hung I Matter posters in her classroom and school hallways.
The campaign’s own recap, cited in the report, recommended future campaigns keep partnering with influencers ages 13 to 18.
Where counseling can lead
I Matter does not prescribe puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery. It provides counseling.
Do No Harm describes a scenario in which a child could enter therapy at 12 without a parent’s knowledge, receive a provider’s note recommending gender transition, and be referred to a clinic that performs medical procedures.
Do No Harm calls that pathway conceivable. It does not document a case of it happening. The report notes that parental consent is still required before a Colorado provider administers a medical transition procedure to a minor.
The report’s larger claim is about volume.
Of 12,896 encounters in the area-of-need dataset for 2021 through 2024, 469 were tagged “gender-affirming care” on the intake form, roughly 3.6 percent.
That category is one of about 15 selectable areas of need, alongside anxiety, depression, grief, and ADHD. More than one can be checked per session.
Of the 469, the report says three encounters involved children age five or under.
One measure, one narrow reach
The findings land as Colorado voters prepare to weigh in on youth gender medicine directly.
In March, the Secretary of State’s office certified Initiative 110 for the November 3 ballot after proponents submitted 164,922 signatures.
The measure, filed by Protect Kids Colorado, would bar any health-care professional or other person from knowingly performing surgery on anyone under 18 to alter their biological sex characteristics. It would also block state and federal funds from paying for it.
Initiative 110 reaches surgery only, not hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or the counseling I Matter provides.
Whatever voters decide, the I Matter program is already in place. The state built it to reach struggling kids, made the service free and confidential, then spent millions on marketing that told them a parent’s consent wasn’t required.
Do No Harm’s records show what the state paid for, and what its influencers were told to say.