In reporting levels of attainment on the performance indicators by each public school, school district, the charter school institute (institute), and the state as a whole, the act requires the department of education (department) to include for the 2021-22 school year data concerning the percentage of students who contributed to the state longitudinal academic growth indicator. Under current law, the department is required to annually determine the levels of attainment on various performance indicators for each public school, school district, the institute, and the state as a whole. Furthermore, under current law, the department is not required to determine the levels of attainment of each public school, school district, the institute, or the state as a whole for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. For the 2021-22 school year, the act requires the department to determine the level of attainment for each public school, school district, the institute, and the state as a whole, based on the statewide targets required for the 2018-19 school year. Under current law, for purposes of calculating a school district's or the institute's consecutive years on performance watch, the department is required to count the school district's accreditation rating for the 2022-23 school year as if it were consecutive to the 2019-20 school year. The act suspends counting a school district's accreditation rating until the 2023-24 school year. Under current law, so long as a school district or the institute performs at a level consistent with being accredited with priority improvement plan or lower, a state review panel is required to consider various criteria in evaluating performance and recommending actions. The act adds to these criteria consideration of a school district's or the institute's 2022-23 accreditation category or the public school's 2022-23 plan type. Under current law, the school transformation grant program generally provides funding to school districts, the institute, and charter schools that are implementing priority improvement or turnaround plans. For grants awarded in the 2022-23 budget year, the act extends grant eligibility to school districts, the institute, and charter schools that are implementing improvement plans. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act continues the school safety resource center advisory board indefinitely. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act authorizes a local government to designate all or a portion of a highway under its jurisdiction for over-snow use only when snow-packed conditions exist on the highway or for a designated continuous seasonal period for which the local government determines that snow-packed conditions are likely to exist on the highway. "Over-snow use" is defined as travel on top of snow by human-powered or animal-powered means or by an off-highway vehicle that is primarily designed or altered for use over snow and runs without tires on a continuous belt track or on one or more skis while in use over snow. A local government may limit an over-snow use designation to human-powered or animal-powered travel, or both, and the act does not prohibit a local authority from entering into a private winter maintenance agreement when wheeled winter access is requested along a highway. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The speaker of the house of representatives (speaker) and the president of the senate (president) are required to invite representatives from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to give an address to a joint session of the general assembly on an annual basis. The date and time of the address is determined on an annual basis by the speaker, the president, and the designated representatives of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act increases, from 10% to 100%, the amount of tuition revenues that a governing board of an institution of higher education or group of institutions of higher education designated as an enterprise may pledge in a contract for the advancement of money. If an institution of higher education issues a revenue bond and the governing board of the institution wants the bond to be an intercept bond, the act raises the amount of the pledged revenue for the new intercept bond from not less than 10% of tuition to not less than 100% of tuition if the institution is an enterprise. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act changes the name of the water resources review committee to the water resources and agriculture review committee (committee) and expands the scope of the committee to include agriculture issues. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act expands a program, which had been scheduled to repeal on July 1, 2023, that allows a public employees' retirement association (PERA) service retiree to work full-time without any reduction in the service retiree's retirement benefits for a rural school district that has a critical shortage of qualified individuals with specific experience, skills, or qualifications that the service retiree has by: Making the program permanent; Adding school nurses and paraprofessionals to those who are eligible for post-PERA retirement full-time employment; and Allowing a board of cooperative services or a charter school that is located within a rural school district and that has such a critical shortage to participate in the program. The act also requires PERA to submit additional reports, containing the same types of information as the initial report that PERA submitted as required by law in 2020, to the finance committees of the general assembly on or before December 1, 2025, and on or before December 1 of each fifth year thereafter. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act changes the deadline to appoint nonlegislative members to the Colorado youth advisory council (council) and removes the requirement that nonlegislative members be selected by a majority vote of the council. The act repeals the requirement to appoint council co-chairs and vice-chairs, requires the council to adopt written bylaws setting forth a leadership structure for the council, and clarifies that the council can elect members to serve in any leadership position described in its bylaws. The act requires that 2 of the council's 4 meetings each year be held in person. The act changes the council's annual reporting requirement so that the council reports to the Colorado youth advisory council review committee (review committee) during the interim. The act requires the chair of the review committee and the chair of the legislative council to sign council contracts and requires the president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives to appoint the chair and vice-chair of the review committee on an annually alternating basis. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law limits the number of days that a retired teacher who is a public employees' service association (PERA) retiree can work as a substitute teacher for a PERA employer without reduction in PERA retirement benefits. The act temporarily waives these limits for qualified service retirees in any school district or charter school while there are critical substitute teacher shortages. This temporary waiver does not count against the additional 10 service retirees that a state college or university or an employer in the school division or the Denver public schools division of PERA may hire. For purposes of the act, "substitute teacher" is defined to have no restriction in the length of a continuous assignment. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act amends the high school innovative learning pilot program (ILOP) that authorizes school districts, district charter schools, and institute charter schools (local education providers) to count as full-time students high school students participating in innovative learning opportunities regardless of whether they meet the number of teacher-pupil instruction and contact hours for full-time enrollment. The act allows a school of a school district to participate in an ILOP with a district or independently and requires all applicants to demonstrate how their innovative learning plan disproportionately benefits underserved students.In selecting applicants to participate in the pilot program, the act requires the department of education (department) and the state board of education (state board) to consider whether the innovative learning plan includes opportunities for students to participate in registered or unregistered apprenticeships, internships, and technical training or skills programs through an industry provider, teacher training opportunities, concurrent enrollment, and industry certificates.Further, subject to available appropriations, the state board is encouraged to select up to 20 applicants and is not limited to choosing applicants that had part-time students in the prior year and that enroll fewer than 5,000 students.The act creates the fourth-year innovation pilot program (pilot program) in the department of higher education to disburse state funding to postsecondary education and training programs on behalf of low-income students who graduate early from a high school participating in the pilot program prior to enrolling in the fourth year of high school or prior to enrolling in the second semester of their fourth year in high school.The state funding awarded to a student graduating prior to enrolling in the fourth year of high school is equal to the greater of 75% of the average state share amount of the statewide average per-pupil funding for public elementary and secondary schools for the 2021-22 budget year, as calculated during the 2021 legislative session, or $3,500. The state funding for a student graduating prior to the second semester of their fourth year in high school is equal to the greater of 45% of the average state share amount of the statewide average per-pupil funding for public elementary and secondary schools for the 2021-22 budget year, as calculated during the 2021 legislative session, or $2,000. The state funding is disbursed to the postsecondary program on behalf of the eligible graduate and may be used for the eligible graduate's cost of attendance for the postsecondary program, as determined by the department of higher education. The local education provider from which the student graduated early prior to the fourth year of high school receives a portion of the state savings for school finance obligations due to the early graduation. An eligible graduate must enroll in a postsecondary program within 18 months after graduating or the state funding is forfeited.The act requires the department of higher education to report annually to the department, the governor's office of state planning and budgeting, the joint budget committee, and the education committees of the general assembly concerning certain information specified in the act relating to the pilot program. The act creates the fourth-year innovation pilot program fund for the pilot program. The pilot program repeals, effective December 31, 2027.For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act appropriates:$220,115 and 0.3 FTE to the department of education for the high school innovative learning pilot program; and $44,222 and 0.6 FTE to the department of higher education to implement the for the fourth-year innovation pilot program .(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)