Colorado program
A free disabled parking placard
A free Colorado disability parking placard can make the trip from the car easier when your child has a qualifying limitation.
What it is
A free Colorado disability parking placard can make the trip from the car easier when your child has a qualifying limitation.
Treatment can make walking from a distant parking space difficult. A parking placard depends on the child's physical limitation, not the diagnosis by itself. A clinician can assess whether the legal standard fits.
Eligibility rules
- A physical impairment must meet the applicable federal standard and be certified by an eligible clinician.
- A physician, physician assistant, podiatrist or advanced-practice registered nurse can certify. For a 90-day placard, a chiropractor or physical therapist can also certify.
- A short-term 90-day placard differs from temporary impairment expected to last less than 30 months. Longer placard categories generally last up to three years. For a child under 16, a parent can supply the required identification.
What you get
- A disability parking placard with no issuing fee.
- A renewable 90-day short-term option for a qualifying condition.
What the help includes
- A temporary placard helps during a qualifying short-term impairment. Renewal requires the applicable certification process.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the clinic to assess your child's walking or other qualifying limitation and complete the certification if appropriate.
- Submit the signed form to the motor-vehicle office if you choose to request the placard.
Clinic and county motor-vehicle office · Official page ↗
After you ask
- The motor-vehicle office reviews the certified form. A 90-day placard expires at the end of the month containing its 90th day.
Good to know
The placard is free. That does not establish free parking at every hospital or parking facility.
Other details
- A cancer diagnosis alone does not establish the functional standard. The clinician describes the actual limitation.
- Colorado uses Form DR 2219. The clinician checks a listed impairment, such as inability to walk 200 feet without resting, a severe mobility limitation, or certain oxygen, lung or heart conditions. A parent can supply the required identification for a child under 16. Short-term 90-day and longer placard categories have different certification and renewal rules; the county motor-vehicle office can check the right category.
Official sources
“Would our child's current mobility qualify for a parking placard, and are there limits on how we could use it? If it would help, could you assist with the certification and form?”
Why I’m asking: I want to make clinic arrivals less exhausting when walking is difficult for my child.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Get the form signed in clinic and file it.
Your social worker
The clinic certifies the impairment.
The care team
The clinician describes the walking limitation.
- Who decides
- The motor-vehicle office.
- Ask the care team
- “Can you sign the disability parking placard form, describing how far my child can walk right now?”
How to apply
First step: Ask the clinic to certify the form at the next visit, then file it with the motor-vehicle office.
- Ask the clinic to complete the certification at the next visit.
Where it starts: Ask the clinic to certify the form and file it with the motor-vehicle office.
What to gather
- The certification form
How long: Unknown; the motor-vehicle office issues it once the form is filed.
What a yes looks like
A placard arrives with an expiry date.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Ask the clinician to describe the walking limitation in the impairment terms the law uses.
Watch out
- The diagnosis is not the test; the walking limitation is.
- A 90-day placard ends at the end of the month containing its ninetieth day.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
A free disability parking placard, including a renewable 90-day temporary one.
- $0 — Fee for an identifying placard
- $90 — Short-term placard length; longer categories have separate rules
Legal protection: No fee applies · A 90-day placard can be renewed by requalifying · A placard for a child under 16 can carry the parent's identification number
What it costs the family: Nothing.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Medical
- A physical impairment meeting the federal standard, certified by a physician, physician assistant, podiatrist or advanced-practice registered nurse; for a 90-day placard a chiropractor or physical therapist can also certify
The trap: A cancer diagnosis is not itself the test: the law asks for a physical impairment that meets the federal standard. Ask the clinician to describe the walking limitation, not the diagnosis.
Where I read this
- Colorado Revised Statutes 2026, Title 42 - Vehicles and Traffic — Colorado General Assembly, Office of Legislative Legal Services, read September 10, 2026