Rep. Lorena García

The act requires the state board of education (board) to adopt high school health education standards regarding drug overdose risks, identification of a drug overdose event, and drug overdose prevention and response. The act authorizes the board to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations for the purpose of adopting these standards. The board must adopt the standards on or before July 1, 2028, if, the board receives by July 1, 2026, $20,000 from gifts, grants, or donations to adopt the standards. If sufficient money is not received, the board is required to adopt the standards on or before July 1, 2032, pursuant to the general standards schedule. Under current law, a school district, the state charter school institute (institute), or the governing board of a nonpublic school may adopt and implement a policy allowing an employee or agent of the school to furnish an opioid antagonist to any individual, including a student, but only if the student has received appropriate school-sponsored training. The act repeals the required condition that a student must receive appropriate school-sponsored training. The act authorizes a school district, the institute, a public school, or a nonpublic school to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations for purposes related to acquiring, maintaining, and providing training for administering opioid antagonists. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates the American Indian affairs interim committee (committee). The purpose of the committee is to examine issues and challenges that impact American Indian Tribal Nations. The committee consists of 6 voting members of the general assembly who serve for the duration of the committee unless they resign, are removed, or are no longer in office and 2 nonvoting members, one from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and one from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The act allows the committee to meet up to 6 times and recommend up to 5 bills during each interim, but the committee does not meet or recommend legislation during the 2025 interim. On or before January 15, 2031, the act requires the committee to submit a report to the executive committee of the legislative council summarizing the work of the committee during the preceding 5 years. The committee is repealed, effective June 30, 2031. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Beginning July 1, 2026, absent an emergency placement change, the act requires a county or district department of human or social services (county department) child welfare caseworker (caseworker) to create an individualized placement transition plan (plan) for a child any time the child is moved from one placement in a foster care home, kinship foster care home, or non-certified kinship care home (placement) to another or back to the child's home. The plan must prioritize the mental, emotional, and physical needs of the child while considering the needs of the parents, current providers, and future providers as the needs of the parents, current providers, and future providers relate to the care of the child. If a sibling group is moved from a placement together, the caseworker may develop a single plan for the sibling group, as long as the plan takes into account the individualized needs of each child. The plan, at a minimum, must include: A determination of pre-transition logistics to adequately prepare for the child's new placement; A plan for pre- and post-transition communications between individuals who have relevant information for the transition; A timeline to transition the child to a new placement; A plan to physically move the child to the new placement; and A framework for a caseworker's post-transition communications. The department of human services (state department), within existing resources, shall create a training on the importance of plans that is recorded and made available on a training system that can be accessed statewide. The training must focus on plans and individuals who have lived experience with placement transitions, including an emphasis on individuals who experienced placement transitions. Newly employed caseworkers must complete the training within the first year of employment as a caseworker. All caseworkers may complete this training every 3 years. A foster care, kinship foster care, or non-certified kinship care provider (provider) may complete the training and may receive support from the state department or the county department to improve the provider's skills in transitioning a child in the provider's care from one placement to another. The state department may adopt rules for purposes of the plans. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Beginning on or before July 1, 2027, the act requires a county department of human or social services (county department) to determine whether a child or youth who is in foster care and who has a deceased parent (child or youth) may be eligible to receive survivor benefits administered by the United States railroad retirement board, social security administration, or veterans benefits administration (federal survivor benefits). The county department must make an initial eligibility determination within 90 days after assuming legal custody of or authority over the child or youth. Under current law, certain federal agencies appoint a representative payee or fiduciary (representative payee) to receive and manage federal benefits on behalf of a child or youth in foster care. If a child or youth may be eligible for federal survivor benefits and the county department is the most appropriate representative payee, the act requires the county department to apply for federal survivor benefits on behalf of the child or youth. If the county department determines that the child or youth may be eligible for federal survivor benefits but that the county department is not the most appropriate representative payee, the county department shall provide information to the prospective representative payee that the county department has identified about how to apply for federal survivor benefits on behalf of the child or youth and how to become the child's or youth's representative payee. Under current law, a county department serving as a representative payee may use federal benefits to offset the cost of providing basic care and services to a child or youth in foster care. The act prohibits this offset practice with respect to federal survivor benefits. Instead, the act directs a county department serving as a representative payee to establish an account for the federal survivor benefits (account). A county department serving as a representative payee must save money in the account for the needs of the individual child or youth. Once the child or youth leaves foster care, the county department is required to release funds in the account to the child or youth. The act sets forth various accounting and notice requirements related to federal survivor benefits and requires the department of human services (department), in consultation with interested stakeholders, to adopt rules providing guidance for county departments. The guidance extends to procedures for identifying a representative payee, county department responsibilities when federal survivor benefits are denied or when a child or youth leaves foster care, and policies governing the establishment and maintenance of an account for federal survivor benefit funds. The department must provide technical assistance to a county department about how to conserve federal survivor benefit funds in the best interests of an individual child or youth. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Section 1 of the act allows a person to access a suppressed court record if that person affirms that they are accessing the record on behalf of the attorney general for the purpose of investigating any violation of state law that the attorney general may enforce. Section 2 clarifies that the attorney general has the power to initiate and bring civil and criminal actions to enforce certain state landlord-tenant laws and that these actions must be initiated and brought within existing appropriations. Sections 4 and 5 grant counties, cities and counties, and municipalities the power to initiate and bring civil actions to enforce certain state landlord-tenant laws. Sections 4 and 5 also create requirements related to a county, city and county, or municipality retaining a private attorney to initiate or bring these civil actions. Section 6 establishes a receivership mechanism that is available as a remedy for violations of applicable laws and regulations by the landlord of multifamily residential property. The attorney general, a county, a city and county, and a municipality may all apply to a district court for the appointment of a receiver to operate a multifamily residential property if there is reasonable cause to believe that the landlord has engaged in a pattern of neglect, as defined in the Act, in connection with the property. The act establishes the process for a district court appointing a receiver, including requiring a hearing and an order of appointment that specifies the duties of a receiver, and the criteria for qualifying as a receiver. No sooner than 90 days after the district court appoints a receiver, the landlord of the relevant property, a lessee of the entire relevant property, the attorney general, or a county, city and county, or municipality may submit an application to the district court to terminate the receivership. As with the appointing of a receiver, section 6 establishes the process by which a district court may terminate a receivership. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act exempts an assisted living residence that has not undergone new construction or major renovations from complying with the facility guideline institute guidelines. The department of health care policy and financing (state department) must establish a process for reviewing and updating the general billing manual on an annual basis and ensure that the general billing manual includes all necessary CPT codes or links to the state department's list of CPT codes. The act allows the Colorado healthcare affordability and sustainability enterprise to receive public funds. Beginning January 1, 2026, for claims that must be reprocessed as a result of updating the provider rates, the act requires a managed care organization to issue payment to a contracted provider within one year after the provider rate is updated. The state department must notify the managed care organizations of changes to the provider rates within 60 days of changing the provider rates. The act requires the state department to include in each new contract with, or renewal of a contract with, a managed care entity (MCE) a provision requiring the MCE to submit to the state department, on an annual basis, the amount the MCE is paid and the MCE's medical loss ratio. The state department is required to publish this information, as well as historical medical loss ratio data for each MCE, and publish on an annual basis audit findings regarding an MCE's most recently completed medical loss ratio audit on the state department's website. The act prohibits the state department from imposing signature requirements on a physician or practitioner certifying a medicaid member's (member) plan of care that involves physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy. The act requires that for members receiving home- and community-based services, if a service the member receives is discontinued or no longer a covered service, the state department must confirm the timeline for the continuity of treatment with the federal centers for medicare and medicaid during the transition period of the benefit or service being discontinued and must communicate that timeline to the member impacted by the benefit or service being discontinued. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act amends statutory provisions relating to unused medication in facilities, including correctional facilities, nursing care facilities, assisted living residences, hospice, and other facilities, to change the defined term "medication" to "medicine" and specifies the types of unused medicines that may be redispensed to patients or donated to another entity that has legal authority to possess the medicine. The act creates the Colorado drug donation program (donation program). The donation program allows a person legally authorized to possess medicine, including an individual donor who is a member of the public and other donors, including a pharmacy, a long-term care facility, a surgical center, a prescriber or other health-care professional or facility, a wholesaler, a distributor, a third-party logistics provider, and others (donor), to donate certain unused medicine (donated medicine), as specified in the act. The act prohibits the donation of prescription drugs that are subject to risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS), unless all of the required guidelines are followed, or REMS drugs that were initially dispensed by a pharmacy pursuant to a restricted distribution channel. A donor or an individual donor may donate unused medicine to a donation recipient that is authorized to possess medicine and that has a credential in good standing in the state in which the donation recipient is located. A donation recipient includes a hospital, pharmacy, clinic, health-care provider, or prescriber office, and may include a wholesaler, distributor, third-party logistics provider, reverse distributor, or repackager if the entity is a nonprofit entity or is directly or indirectly owned, controlled, or could be controlled by a nonprofit entity. The act requires the donation recipient to keep a record of the donated medicine, separate the donated medicine from regular stock, and have donated medicine inspected by a licensed pharmacist. The donation recipient may transfer the donated medicine to another donation recipient or entity, repackage the donated medicine, or, if the donation recipient is a prescription drug outlet or other outlet, replace medicine of the same drug name and strength. The act requires donated medicine to first be dispensed to an eligible patient who is an individual who is indigent, uninsured, or underinsured. Donated medicine must not be resold; except that a donation recipient may charge a handling or dispensing fee for the donated medicine. When acting in good faith, the participants in the donation program are not subject to civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action. The act also shields drug manufacturers from liability for donated medicine that is subject to REMS under federal law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

On or after July 1, 2025, the act requires a person, before commencing a project to install or substantially repair a contiguous fence of at least a specified certain size in the Sangre de Cristo land grant lands (covered fencing project), to submit an application for the covered fencing project to the local government with jurisdiction over the covered fencing project (application) if the local government has opted into the act's requirements. No later than 14 days after the local government's receipt of an application, the local government must publish notice of the application on the local government's website. No later than 60 days after the local government's receipt of an application, the local government must either approve or reject the application based on certain criteria; except that, despite the criteria, a local government may approve an application if it determines that the benefits of the covered fencing project outweigh the harms. If the local government finds that a covered fencing project presents no significant environmental impacts, then the local government shall not require a person commencing the covered fencing project to submit an application or pay a fee. The act does not apply to a covered fencing project that is necessary for a public utility or department of transportation project, an energy sector public works project, the safety or security of a public school or prison, or fences provided by the division of parks and wildlife. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The Tony Grampsas youth services grant program (grant program) provides grants to community-based programs to reduce incidents of youth crime and violence. The youth mentoring program, the student dropout prevention and intervention program, and the student before-and-after school project (collectively, the "programs") were created within the grant program. The act repeals the individual programs and instead lists the programs as allowable uses for grant money under the grant program. The act transfers certain responsibilities from the Tony Grampsas youth services board (board) to the department of human services (department). The act repeals local public-to-private funding match requirements. The act requires each entity that receives a grant to annually report certain information to the department; except that an entity that has an operating budget of less than $1.5 million, or that receives a grant in the amount of not more than $25,000, is not required to report on the outcomes achieved by the services provided and the methods used to track the outcomes. The act decreases the appropriation from the marijuana tax cash fund to the youth mentoring services cash fund by $500,000 and reappropriates the money to the grant program by $500,000. The act decreases the appropriation from the youth mentoring services cash fund to the grant program by $504,120. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act extends the achieving a better life experience state income tax deduction (ABLE deduction) until December 31, 2030. The act specifies that the purposes of the ABLE deduction are to provide support to individuals with disabilities and their families and to provide an incentive for individuals with disabilities and their families to set aside money in an account to cover future disability-related expenses. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)