Rep. Jennifer Bacon

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.)

Under current law, certain provisions are required in a public school contract (contract), and if the provisions are omitted from a contract, the law deems that the provisions are automatically included in the contract. The act clarifies that the list includes that a contractor is required to comply with accessibility standards adopted by the office of information technology for an individual with a disability. The act adds a provision to the list to require a contractor to indemnify, hold harmless, and assume liability on behalf of a public school contracting entity, the public school, and the public school's employees and agents, for all remedies for noncompliance with standards that ensure technology accessibility to persons with disabilities. The act requires that a contract or agreement entered into between a state agency or public entity and a contractor must require a contractor to comply with accessibility standards adopted by the office of information technology for an individual with a disability. Additionally, the contractor must indemnify, hold harmless, and assume liability on behalf of a state agency or public entity's officers, employees, and agents for all remedies for noncompliance with standards that ensure technology accessibility to persons with disabilities. If the provisions are omitted from a contract, the law deems that the provisions are automatically included in the contract. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

For alternative education campuses (AECs), the act: Directs the department of education (department), when administering state education grants, to allocate priority points to AECs; Authorizes AECs to include certain high-risk students in the AEC's pupil count who are 21 years of age or younger during the budget year; Requires the department to prepare and post an annual report on enrollment trends, student demographics, and student mobility in AECs; and Exempts an AEC from losing its designation due to a fluctuation in enrollment for one school year. The act appropriates $9,613 from the general fund to the department for accountability and improvement planning. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act implements the recommendation of the department of regulatory agencies in its 2024 sunset review and report on the rural alcohol and substance abuse prevention and treatment program by continuing the program until September 1, 2030. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act implements the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies (department) in its sunset review and report on the HOA information and resource center (center). The center was scheduled to repeal on September 1, 2025. The act: Continues the center until September 1, 2030; Clarifies that the director of the division of real estate in the department is the appointing authority for the HOA information officer who is the head of the center; and Makes a technical change to refer to the HOA information officer by title, rather than by "he or she", to reflect gender-neutral language in statute.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act permits the state, a county, a city and county, a school district, or a municipality to, with approval from a school district's board of education, install and utilize automated vehicle identification systems (system) on the school district's school buses to detect a driver of a vehicle that overtakes a stopped school bus with actuated visual signal lights in violation of current law. A school district that installs and utilizes a system for this purpose must enter into a memorandum of understanding with one or more law enforcement agencies. If a system detects a violation, the state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality may impose a civil penalty of up to $300. The act creates a rebuttable presumption that when an image produced by a system includes an electronic indicator signifying that a school bus's visual signal lights are actuated, the visual signal lights are presumed to be actuated and operational and the school bus is presumed to be stopped to receive or discharge school children. The act mandates that the fines collected through the use of the system must not be used as the basis for the compensation to the system manufacturer or vendor and that the compensation must not be based exclusively upon the number of citations issued or revenue generated by the system.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the director of the division of oil and public safety in the department of labor and employment (division) to adopt rules concerning retail electric vehicle charging that set forth minimum standards relating to specifications and tolerances for retail electric vehicle charging equipment and methods of retail sale at publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations to promote consistency in the marketplace by July 1, 2026, and to enforce the rules beginning July 1, 2027. The act broadens the allowable uses of money in the electric vehicle grant fund within the Colorado energy office to include: Operational and policy work to support electric vehicle adoption, electric vehicle charging, and affordable, clean electricity for electric motor vehicles, including covering the administrative costs of this work; and Support for the development and enforcement of retail electric vehicle charging rules by the division. The act also broadens the allowable uses of money in the community impact cash fund within the department of public health and environment to include environmental equity and cumulative impact analyses. The act also requires the community access enterprise within the Colorado energy office to reduce the amount of the community access retail delivery fee that it imposes as necessary to ensure that the enterprise does not collect more than $100 million in total fee revenue prior to June 30, 2026. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, $225,320 is appropriated to the department of labor and employment for use by the division for personal services and operating expenses. This appropriation is from reappropriated funds received from the office of the governor that are continuously appropriated to the Colorado energy office from the electric vehicle grant fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

In accordance with the statutory requirement that the public employees' retirement association (PERA) determine whether the employer contribution rate for the Denver public schools (DPS) division of PERA must be adjusted to assure the equalization of the DPS division's ratio of unfunded actuarial accrued liability over payroll to the PERA school division's ratio of unfunded actuarial accrued liability over payroll at the end of the 30-year period that began on January 1, 2010, beginning on July 1, 2025, the act reduces the total employer contribution rate for the DPS division from 10.4% to 7.4% of salary. In addition, the act: Reduces the percentage of salary that is allocated to the DPS division health care trust fund from 1.02% of member salaries to .20% of member salaries, which will allow PERA to apply the remaining .82% of the allocation to pension liabilities; For 5 years beginning July 1, 2025, excludes the DPS division from the annual allocation of the money that is directly distributed to PERA by the general assembly; and For 5 years beginning July 1, 2025, removes the DPS division from the calculation that PERA annually uses to determine whether an automatic adjustment to member and employer contribution rates and annual increase amounts will occur.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Health benefit insurance plans (health benefit plans) include coverage for gender-affirming health care as part of individual and group health benefit plans. "Gender-affirming health care" is defined in the act as supplies, care, and services of a medical, behavioral health, mental health, psychiatric, habilitative, surgical, therapeutic, diagnostic, preventive, rehabilitative, or supportive nature relating to the treatment of gender dysphoria (gender-affirming health care). The act codifies gender-affirming health care treatments in statute and prohibits a health benefit plan from denying or limiting medically necessary gender-affirming health care, as determined and prescribed by a physical or behavioral health-care provider. The act authorizes the health insurance affordability board to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations and to use those gifts, grants, or donations to cover abortion costs and to ensure access to legally protected health-care activity. The act exempts prescriptions for testosterone from the tracking requirements of the prescription drug use monitoring program and blocks archived records concerning testosterone use from view. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates a postsecondary and workforce readiness funding model that includes 3 types of funding: Start-up funding, innovation grant funding, and sustain funding. The state board of education (state board) is authorized to adopt rules concerning these funding sources. For the 2025-26 budget year through the 2027-28 budget year, the department of education (department) shall use a formula to determine each local education provider's start-up funding, which is used for eligible expenses that are associated with developing and implementing a postsecondary and workforce readiness program. Start-up funding gradually phases out and repeals after the 2027-28 budget year. Beginning in the 2028-29 budget year, innovation grant funding through the John W. Buckner postsecondary and workforce readiness innovation grant program, created in the department, is available to certain local education providers for eligible expenses that are associated with developing and implementing a postsecondary and workforce readiness program that aligns with the state's workforce demands or priorities. Local education providers that are required to adopt a priority improvement plan or a turnaround plan, or that authorize schools that are required to adopt a priority improvement plan or turnaround plan, for the current or prior budget year, or local education providers that demonstrate, or authorize a school that demonstrates, a low level of attainment on the postsecondary workforce readiness indicator for the prior school year are eligible for innovation grant funding. Beginning in the 2026-27 budget year, sustain funding is used to reimburse local education providers' expenses for students who, in the preceding budget year, successfully satisfied postsecondary credit, industry-recognized credential, or work-based learning requirements. For the 2026-27 budget year, of total sustain funding, a certain percentage is available for reimbursing postsecondary credit attainment, reimbursing industry-recognized credentials, and reimbursing work-based learning. For the 2027-28 budget year, and budget years thereafter, the state board may adjust the percentages for these categories. Beginning in January 2028, the department is required to annually report, as a part of its "SMART Act" presentation, findings regarding the effectiveness of consolidating the postsecondary and workforce readiness programs and funding streams. By November 1, 2029, the department is required to report to the joint budget committee findings regarding the effectiveness of consolidating the postsecondary and workforce readiness programs and funding streams. The act repeals the accelerating students through concurrent enrollment program and career development success program after the 2025-26 budget year. Upon passage, the act repeals the: Concurrent enrollment expansion and innovation grant program; and John W. Buckner automatic enrollment in advanced courses grant program. The act requires the department to convene a working group that includes educators to report its findings and recommendations to the joint budget committee concerning the effectiveness of the teacher retention and preparation program (TREP) and the pathways in technology (p-tech) early college high schools. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, the act: Adjusts appropriations made in the 2025-26 long bill; Appropriates $5,018,715 from the general fund and state education fund to the department for use by student pathways to implement the act; and Appropriates $160,073 from the general fund to the department for use by school quality and support to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)