Rep. Andy Boesenecker

The act changes the tuition assistance program for eligible members of the Colorado National Guard (member) to a tuition waiver program (program). The act allows a member, upon being accepted for enrollment at a designated institution of higher education (institution), to pursue studies that lead to a postgraduate degree, a bachelor's degree, an associate degree, or a certificate of completion with all tuition waived. For a member, the tuition waiver must not exceed more than 65 credit hours at a designated 2-year institution of higher education and no more than 130 credit hours at a designated 4-year institution of higher education; except that the total credit hours for a member who attends both a 2-year institution and a 4-year institution must not exceed more than 145 credit hours. The department of military and veterans affairs (department) shall administer the program. In order to qualify for the program, a member must: Be accepted by an institution; Be in good standing with the Colorado National Guard; and Complete a Colorado application for state financial aid or a free application for federal student aid. Each institution shall determine if a member enrolled with the institution remains in satisfactory academic standing in accordance with the academic policies of the institution and is making progress toward the completion of the requirements of the education program in which the member is enrolled. If the institution finds that the member is not in satisfactory academic standing in accordance with the academic policies of the institution or is not making progress toward the completion of a degree, the member must reimburse the department for the amount of the tuition waived for that academic term. The act makes an appropriation of $562,787 to the department. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Under current law, a parent who wants to relinquish their child must satisfy certain requirements. If the parent who wants to relinquish their child is a victim of sexual assault that resulted in the conception of the child to be relinquished, the act: Allows the relinquishment petitioner (petitioner) to provide the juvenile court with documentation concerning the sexual assault or conception, including a sworn affidavit; Exempts the petitioner from having to satisfy certain relinquishment requirements if the court finds that the petitioner is a victim of sexual assault that resulted in the conception of the child to be relinquished; and Exempts the petitioner of all legal obligations they may have with respect to the child if the court grants a final order of relinquishment. On or before January 1, 2026, the state court administrator shall develop a, or modify an existing, standardized form for a petitioner to file to terminate another person's parent-child legal relationship because the child was conceived as a result of sexual assault. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Each school district, board of cooperative services that operates a school, district charter school, and institute charter school (local education provider) is required to establish written policies for the acquisition, retention, display, and use of library resources and for the reconsideration of a library resource (policies). A local education provider is required to comply with specified standards in establishing the policies and is required to establish the policies by September 1, 2025. If a local education provider has already established policies that comply with the requirements of the act, the local education provider is not required to establish new policies. A public school library may remove a library resource from its permanent collection only if the library resource has been reviewed in accordance with an established policy for the reconsideration of library resources that complies with the standards established in the act. These requirements do not apply to routine collection maintenance and deaccession in accordance with a public school library's established collection development and maintenance policy. Before a local education provider reconsiders a library resource, the local education provider is required to make its policies available to the public. After reviewing a library resource that is the subject of a request for reconsideration and making a final determination regarding the library resource, the local education provider is required to make the determination available to the public. A written request for reconsideration of a library resource in a public school library is an open record under the "Colorado Open Records Act". A public school library staff member is not subject to termination, demotion, discipline, or retaliation for refusing to remove a library resource before it has been reviewed in accordance with the local education provider's policy for the reconsideration of library resources or for making decisions that the public school library staff member believes, in good faith, are in accordance with the policies of the local education provider. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the department of corrections (department) to search all information available to the department to determine whether an offender held at a correctional facility is subject to an outstanding warrant or if the offender has a pending case in a Colorado court. The department is required to conduct the search when the department conducts the initial comprehensive evaluation of the offender's sentence and 3 to 8 months prior to the offender's community correction eligibility date. The act requires the department to establish guidelines and policies that address requests for additional searches as may be needed by the public defender liaison to the department. If the department determines that an offender is subject to a warrant or has a pending case in a Colorado court, the department shall notify the offender, the public defender liaison to the department, and the court that issued the warrant or in which the case is pending, as applicable. The general assembly encourages a court to ensure the offender appears before the court, is assigned counsel if the defendant is eligible for court-appointed counsel, allows the offender to resolve the warrant in a timely manner, and facilitates virtual appearance for the offender. The act does not prohibit the department from searching for outstanding warrants at any other time. The act requires the office of state public defender to designate an email address for the public defender liaisons to the department of corrections to receive notifications from the department. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the state board of education to adopt rules that consider a number of factors in determining the amount of money each school participating in the K-5 social and emotional health pilot program will receive in order to carry out the pilot program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The bill designates Colorado American Indian Recognition Day as an observed, but not a legal, state holiday. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

Section 1 of the bill creates the crash prevention enterprise (enterprise) in the department of transportation (CDOT) for the purpose of lowering automobile insurance costs by providing funding for transportation system infrastructure improvements and other data-driven strategies that reduce the number of collisions that involve a motor vehicle, particularly collisions between a motor vehicle and a vulnerable road user or wildlife (eligible projects). Beginning January July 1, 2026, the enterprise is authorized to impose a crash prevention fee (fee) of up to a specified maximum amount on the policyholder of each automobile insurance policy issued in the state on a per-policy basis for each vehicle insured under an automobile insurance policy other than a motor vehicle that weighs 26,000 pounds or more or a motorcycle. Each insurer that issues an automobile insurance policy must collect the fee from the policyholder and pay the fee to the enterprise. Fee revenue is credited to a newly created crash prevention enterprise fund (fund) and continuously appropriated to the enterprise. The specified maximum amount of the fee adjusts annually on July 1, 2027, and on each July 1 thereafter for inflation, as measured by the rolling 5-year average of the national highway construction cost index published by the federal highway administration in the United States department of transportation. Fee revenue is credited to a newly created crash prevention enterprise fund (fund) and continuously appropriated to the enterprise. The enterprise is authorized to expend 80% 70% of its available revenue the money in the fund to issue grants to eligible entities, which are local governments, state or federally recognized tribal entities, public entities that are not part of the state, and private entities, for eligible projects that reduce motor vehicle collisions with vulnerable road users, as defined by the bill, and 20% 30% of its available revenue the money in the fund to fund eligible projects that reduce motor vehicle collisions with wildlife. In addition to an annual reporting requirement, the enterprise is required, no later than January 31, 2031, to present a report to specified legislative committees that includes, at a minimum, any recommendations that the enterprise may have for statutory changes with respect to the imposition of the fee and the funding of eligible projects; assessments as to whether the bill's definition of "vulnerable road user" remains appropriate and whether the fee is being imposed on the correct types of motor vehicles; and a cumulative account of the enterprise's revenue, applied for and awarded grants, and projects funded and completed between July 1, 2026, and June 30, 2030. Section 2 authorizes the division of insurance in the department of regulatory agencies, upon receiving notice from the enterprise of an insurer's failure to collect the fee from its automobile insurance policyholders and pay the fee to the enterprise, to institute an enforcement proceeding and seek specified civil penalties from the insurer. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

Provides for the payment of expenses of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the state of Colorado, and of its agencies and institutions, for and during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, except as otherwise noted. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Maddy summarySenate Joint Resolution 25-022 is a commemorative resolution concerning the remembrance of the Holocaust. It declares the General Assembly's commitment to remembering the Holocaust and encourages school districts and universities to promote antibias, bullying prevention, and Holocaust and genocide education programs to prevent antisemitic incidents, particularly those targeting Jewish students.

The act establishes certain requirements for social media companies and social media platforms in order to protect users. Specifically, the act: Relocates, with amendments, certain language requiring a social media platform to include a function that provides minor users information about their engagement in social media, which language was enacted in 2024 by House Bill 24-1136; Requires a social media company to publish policies for each social media platform owned or operated by the social media company (published policies) and establishes mandatory contents for published policies; Requires a social media company to submit to the department of law an annual report that includes, for each social media platform owned or operated by the social media company, information concerning the published policies and violations of the published policies; Requires a social media company to annually make publicly available a report that includes, for each social media platform owned or operated by the social media company, certain data concerning how minor users used the social media platform; In satisfying the reporting requirements described in the act, requires a social media company to make commercially reasonable efforts to identify the age categories of users; Requires a social media company, upon the notification of a user's alleged violation of the published policies or of state law, to determine within 48 hours whether the violation occurred and, if so, to remove the user from the applicable social media platform within 24 hours after the determination is made; Requires a social media platform with at least one million discrete monthly users to provide a streamlined process to allow Colorado law enforcement agencies to contact the social media company that operates the social media platform and, under certain conditions, to comply with a search warrant within 72 hours after receiving the search warrant; Makes a violation of the new requirements an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the "Colorado Consumer Protection Act", to be punished accordingly; and Authorizes the attorney general to adopt rules to carry out the new requirements. VETOED by Governor April 24, 2025(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)