Behavioral health care professional matching grant program - use of grant money - behavioral health care services - contracts with community providers - appropriation. The act allows money from the behavioral health care professional matching grant program to be used for behavioral health care services at recipient schools and specifies that grants may also fund behavioral health services contracts with community providers. Grant applicants must specify the extent to which the school has seen an increase in activities or experiences that affect students' mental well-being. The act requires the department of education to prioritize grant applications based on the school's need for additional health professionals and the extent to which the school will prioritize the use of grant money for staff training related to behavioral health supports. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $3,000,000 from the marijuana tax cash fund to the department of education for the behavioral health care professional matching grant program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Sponsored bills
Teacher preparation - best practices - teacher mentor grant program - license endorsement - teacher preparation program requirements - appropriation. The act directs the department of higher education and the department of education (departments) to work with the deans of the schools of education to review, research, and identify best practices in teacher preparation. By January 1, 2020, the departments must jointly adopt guidelines to assist educator preparation programs in adopting and implementing the best practices. The departments must also jointly prepare a report concerning the best practices, the guidelines, and regulatory and statutory recommendations to ensure that the policies and criteria for approving educator preparation programs align with the best practices. The departments must submit the report to the Colorado commission on higher education, the state board of education, and the education committees of the general assembly. By March 1, 2020, the educator preparation programs must each submit a report to the departments demonstrating how the program will implement the best practices over the following 3 years. The act creates the teacher mentor grant program in the department of higher education to provide money to school districts, boards of cooperative services, and charter schools that partner with educator preparation programs to provide training and stipends for teachers who serve as mentors for teacher candidates participating in clinical practice. The act specifies requirements that a partnership's teacher mentor program must meet to receive a grant, including paying the mentor teacher a stipend. The act directs the departments to work with interested parties to identify best practice standards and guidelines for teacher mentoring and requires the department of higher education to adopt the standards and guidelines by January 1, 2020. Beginning in the 2020-21 budget year, the department of higher education must annually prepare a report concerning implementation of the teacher mentor grant program and submit the report to the Colorado commission on higher education, the state board of education, the department of education, and the education committees of the general assembly. The act relocates with nonsubstantive changes the existing collaborative educator preparation grant program and the "Rural Colorado Grow Your Own Educator Act", which provides grants for teaching fellowship programs. The act directs the department of education to collaborate with the department of higher education to create a mentor teacher endorsement for teachers who hold master certificates and provide mentoring and oversight for teacher candidates. The act allows a teacher to use service as a mentor teacher as an approved professional development activity for license renewal. Before passage of the act, the statute specified the requirements that an educator preparation program must meet to be approved. The act adds 2 requirements: An educator preparation program must include instruction in the science of reading and must include at least one full, continuous school year of clinical practice. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $1,217,787 from the general fund to the department of higher education to implement the teacher mentor grant program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Financing for K-12 public schools - transfer to the state education fund - rural school funding - tier B special education funding - ninth grade success grant program - health and wellness through comprehensive physical education grant program - appropriation. The act increases the statewide base per pupil funding for the 2019-20 budget year by $182.76 to account for inflation, for a new statewide base per pupil funding of $6,951.53. The act also sets the minimum district total program funding for the 2019-20 budget year. The district total program funding reflects a $100 million reduction in the dollar amount of the budget stabilization factor over the prior budget year. In addition, the act: Amends the professional development and student support program (program) for English language learners and educators who work with English language learners to distribute money appropriated for the program's services and educator professional development activities proportionately, based on the level of English language proficiency of the students served by the program; For the 2019-20 budget year, distributes $20 million on a per pupil basis to large rural school districts and small rural school districts, including district charter schools and each institute charter school whose accounting district is a large or small rural school district. Large rural school districts share 55% of the appropriation, and small rural school districts share 45% of the appropriation. The act bases the distribution on a school district's funded pupil count for the 2018-19 budget year. The act specifies the intended uses of the money and requires each rural district that receives money to report to the department of education concerning the use of the money. Increases the amount of tier B special education funding by $22 million and allows the amount to be appropriated from the state education fund or the general fund; Transfers $40,326,896 from the general fund to the state education fund; Creates the ninth grade success grant program in the department of education to provide funding to local education providers and charter schools to implement a ninth grade success grant program. Grant recipients must use the money to implement a ninth grade success program that includes elements set forth in the act, including creating a cross-disciplinary success team of teachers and support staff, which includes mental health professionals or social workers. Creates the health and wellness through comprehensive quality physical education instruction pilot program in the department of education that awards 3-year pilot program grants to schools or school districts to implement comprehensive quality physical education instruction. The act specifies the necessary components of a the comprehensive quality physical education instruction. The department of education shall contract with a qualified evaluator to conduct a program evaluation of the pilot program. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act appropriates: $22 million from the general fund to the department of education for tier B special education programs; In addition to funding appropriated through the annual general appropriation act, $7,633,721 and $2,509,623 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of education for the state share of district total program funding; $20 million from the general fund to the department of education for rural school funding; $800,000 from the general fund to the department of education for the ninth grade success grant program; $125,495 from the state education fund to the department of education to fund hold-harmless kindergarten; and $1,100,000 from the marijuana tax cash fund to the department of education for the health and wellness through comprehensive quality physical education instruction pilot program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
The bill requires the council created and existing pursuant to section 23-1-108.5 (council) to implement a plan for determining and awarding academic credit for postsecondary education based on past and present work-related experience. As a part of the plan, the council must also determine how academic credit for postsecondary education will transfer to the extent possible from career and technical education programs and technical certificate programs to state public 2-year and 4-year institutions of higher education. The council must consult with representatives from state institutions of higher education, representatives of the Colorado work force development council, and representatives from growing industries in implementing the plan. The bill requires state institutions of higher education to develop plans to evaluate whether postsecondary education was acquired by work experience and to accept and transfer academic credit awarded for work-related experience as courses with guaranteed-transfer designation or as a part of a statewide articulation agreement. The bill supplements Colorado's student bill of rights to include a provision declaring that the council shall implement a plan to award academic credit for past and present work-related experience. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More
The bill creates the rural development grant program to be administered by the Colorado office of economic development. The grants are to be awarded to early stage rural businesses that are primary employers in a rural area with the potential to export goods or services outside of the rural area. The businesses must be at the seed stage of capital financing, have raised less than five hundred thousand dollars of third-party capital, and are able to provide nonstate matching funding equal to at least one-third of the grant award. The grants may be used for developing prototypes, proof of business concepts, or proof of business models. The grants are funded from the general fund and are limited to no more than $150,000 per early stage rural business per year.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More
School employees - background checks - fingerprinting. Under current law, school employees are required to undergo a fingerprint-based background check. In most statutes, the fingerprints can be taken by a qualified law enforcement agency, an authorized employee of the school or school district, or a third party approved by the Colorado bureau of investigation, but a few statutes do not authorize fingerprints to be taken by an authorized school or school district employee. The act adds that authorization to those statutes. The act requires a law enforcement agency that has fingerprinting equipment that meets federal bureau of investigation image quality standards to take the fingerprints of an applicant if an approved third-party vendor is not operating within 20 miles of a school district, charter school, or nonpublic school in the agency's jurisdiction. The act states that a school or school district employee can use any fingerprinting equipment that meets the federal bureau of investigation image quality standards.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Hard rock mining - mined land reclamation board - reclamation plan - water quality treatment - financial assurance. Current law does not address reliance on perpetual water treatment as the means to minimize impacts to water quality in a reclamation plan for a mining operation. Section 1 of the act requires most reclamation plans to demonstrate, by substantial evidence, a reasonably foreseeable end date for any water quality treatment necessary to ensure compliance with applicable water quality standards. Current law allows a mining permittee to submit an audited financial statement as proof that the operator has sufficient funds to meet its reclamation liabilities in lieu of a bond or other financial assurance. Section 2 eliminates this self-bonding option and also requires that all reclamation bonds include financial assurances in an amount sufficient to protect water quality, including costs for any necessary treatment and monitoring costs. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
School finance - mid-year adjustment to state share of total program funding - appropriation. The general assembly recognizes that the actual funded pupil count and the actual at-risk pupil count for the 2018-19 budget year are lower than anticipated when the appropriation amount was established during the 2018 legislative session. In addition, local property tax and specific ownership tax receipts are more than anticipated, increasing the local share of total program funding. The act declares the general assembly's intent to reduce state share of total program funding to maintain the dollar amount of the budget stabilization factor established during the 2018 legislative session. The act adjusts the amount of total program funding specified in statute to reflect this intent. The act makes an appropriation to the department of education to correct errors in the calculation and distribution of at-risk funding to the state charter school institute in 2 previous budget years. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Educators in rural areas - financial incentives. Before passage of the act, the department of higher education (department) annually awarded up to 40 stipends of not more than $2,800 to students enrolled in teacher preparation programs who agreed to teach in a rural school or rural school district. The act removes the limit on the number of stipends and increases the stipend amount to $4,000. Before the act, the department also annually awarded up to 60 stipends to educators in rural schools and rural school districts who were seeking certain certifications. The act removes the limit on the number of stipends. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Current law normally requires motor vehicles registered in Colorado to transmit at least 70% of light through the windshield and 27% of light through other windows. The bill requires motor vehicles registered outside Colorado but operated in Colorado to transmit at least 20% of light through windows other than the windshield. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More