The act permits the multidisciplinary team that creates an individualized education program (IEP) for a child, who may be eligible for special education services, to translate or contract with a translation services provider to translate the IEP draft documents into the dominant language spoken in the home of the child's parent, guardian, or legal custodian (parent). Upon request of the child's parent, the multidisciplinary team is required to translate or contract with a translation services provider to translate the final IEP document into the dominant language spoken in the home of the child's parent. The IEP team shall verbally inform the child's parent of the right to request translation services. APPROVED by Governor May 25, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act requires the department of health care policy and financing (department) to seek federal authorization through an amendment to the state medical assistance plan to implement the community first choice option. The act requires the state plan amendment to include personal care services, homemaker services, health maintenance activities, personal emergency response systems and other emergency back-up services, and voluntary training on how to select, manage, and dismiss an attendant. The act authorizes the department to provide permissible services and supports that are linked to an assessed need or goal in an individual's person-centered service plan, including transition costs and expenditures relating to increasing an individual's independence or reducing reliance on human assistance. To be eligible for the community first choice option, an individual must: Be eligible for the state medical assistance program; Be in an eligibility group under the state medical assistance program that includes nursing facility services, or if in an eligibility group that does not include nursing facility services, have an income that is at or below 150% of the federal poverty level; or Receive an annual determination that in the absence of home- and community-based attendant services and supports, the individual would require the level of care furnished in certain care settings. The act makes conforming amendments to remove the services provided through the community first choice option from other long-term care waiver programs. APPROVED by Governor May 25, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE May 25, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2025 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the accountability, accreditation, student performance, and resource inequity task force (task force) to study academic opportunities, inequities, promising practices in schools, and improvements to the accountability and accreditation system. The act requires the speaker and minority leader of the house of representatives, the president and minority leader of the senate, the governor, and the department of education (department) to appoint members to the task force no later than July 1, 2023. The task force consists of 26 members, including members who represent statewide education organizations, the department, the state board of education (state board), school district board of education members, charter schools, superintendents, principals, and teachers. The act requires the department to enter into a contract with a facilitator to guide the work of the task force no later than August 15, 2023. The act requires the department to enter into a contract with a third party to draft an interim report and final report. The task force is required to submit an interim report by March 1, 2024, and a final report by November 15, 2024, reflecting its findings and recommendations to the education committees of the house of representatives and senate, the governor, the state board, the commissioner of education, and the department. The act appropriates $300,709 from the general fund to the department to implement the task force. APPROVED by Governor May 24, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 24, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Existing law allows money expended from the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" (IIJA) cash fund (cash fund) to be used as matching nonfederal money for infrastructure projects pursuant to requirements of the IIJA as well as for grant writing support, project planning support, and administrative needs. The act clarifies that, with respect to the project planning support for which money from the fund is already authorized to be expended, the Governor's office (office) may specifically expend money from the fund for project planning support for federal funding opportunities in connection with the IIJA and related federal funding opportunities including funding opportunities from the "Inflation Reduction Act". The act requires the state treasurer to transfer $84 million from the general fund to the cash fund on July 1, 2023. Additionally, the act changes the annual reporting requirement of the office to a quarterly reporting requirement beginning on July 1, 2023. The act also requires the state treasurer to transfer $5 million from the general fund to the state highway fund on July 1, 2023, for use by the department of transportation to develop comprehensive operational capacity to maximize utilization and implementation of federal infrastructure funding. The board of trustees of the Colorado school of mines (board of trustees) has been authorized to lease real or personal property, or both, to state or federal governmental agencies, among other entities, for terms not to exceed 80 years. The act expands this authorization to allow the board of trustees to lease such property for terms not to exceed 99 years. The act appropriates $84,000,000 for state fiscal year 2023-24 from the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" cash fund to the office and principal departments of the executive branch of state government. Any portion of the appropriation that is not spent during state fiscal year 2023-24 is further appropriated through state fiscal year 2026-27. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 22, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The public-private collaboration unit (unit) in the department of personnel (department) promotes the use of public-private partnerships between state public entities such as departments, agencies, or subdivisions of the executive branch of state government, and private partners as a tool for time and cost-efficient completion of public projects. The act requires that the unit give preference to proposed or executed public-private partnership agreements that will use state-owned real property for mixed-income development and affordable housing that is proportional to a community's demonstrated affordable housing needs and authorizes the unit to undertake additional functions in connection with public projects that provide affordable housing including: Accepting gifts, grants, and donations, which if monetary, are to be credited to the unused state-owned real property fund (fund); Utilizing proceeds from real estate transactions and revenue from public-private agreements; Acting as an agent on behalf of the department in real estate transactions using real property that upon approval by the governor has been deeded to the department by a state public entity, including for the purchase, transfer, exchange, sale and disposition, and lease of real property; and Establishing a process for using requests for information to solicit public projects. The act also allows the department and the unit to use money from the fund to facilitate these additional functions by the unit in connection with public projects that provide affordable housing and for the standard operating expenses of the unit. The state treasurer is required to transfer $5,000,000 from the general fund to the fund on July 1, 2023. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $47,583 to the department of law from the legal services cash fund from revenue received from the department of personnel that is continuously appropriated to the department of personnel from the unused state-owned real property fund. The department of law may use the appropriation to provide legal services for the department of personnel. APPROVED by Governor May 20, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 20, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the Colorado school transportation modernization task force (task force) in the department of education (department) to create a report containing findings and recommendations to improve school transportation services for students. The department is required to provide relevant data to the task force to inform its duties. The report must be publicly published and submitted to the education committees of the senate and house of representatives, the board of education, and the governor by December 1, 2024. The act specifies task force membership, including the commissioner of education or the commissioner's designee, and members appointed by the commissioner. For the 2023-24 budget year, $95,313 is appropriated from the general fund to the department to implement the act. APPROVED by Governor May 16, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 16, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act increases the required annual appropriation to the department of education from the state education fund or the general fund by an additional $40,203,671 for children who have one or more disabilities and who receive special education services from a school district, board of cooperative services, a charter school network, a charter school collaborative, or the state charter school institute that is providing educational services to exceptional children. APPROVED by Governor May 15, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 15, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bridge and tunnel enterprise (BTE) in the department of transportation (department) completes tunnel projects and finances, repairs, reconstructs, replaces, and maintains designated bridges in the state. A designated bridge is a bridge that is part of the state highway system and that the department has identified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and has rated as poor. The act expands the scope of the BTE to include the completion of preventative maintenance bridge projects, which are projects that involve a treatment or strategy to extend the service life of a fair-rated or good-rated bridge by preventing, delaying, or reducing deterioration. The act authorizes the BTE to repair, reconstruct, replace, and maintain a bridge that the department has rated as fair if the fair-rated bridge is included as part of a project to repair, reconstruct, replace, or maintain a designated bridge. APPROVED by Governor May 15, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act: Increases the statewide base per pupil funding for the 2023-24 budget year by $598.25, to account for inflation; Sets as the new statewide base per pupil funding amount $8,076.41 for the 2023-24 budget year; and Sets the target number for the 2023-24 budget year at not less than $9,101,600,922. The act repeals the budget stabilization factor, effective July 1, 2024. Current law includes a 5-year averaging provision, which determines a district's pupil count for each budget year by determining the greater of the funded pupil count for the applicable budget year or an average of one to 4 of the prior budget years. The act provides a similar averaging provision for the institute charter schools on a per-school basis. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act appropriates $30 million for distribution to large rural districts and small rural districts, including district charter schools and each institute charter school whose accounting district is a large or small rural district. Large rural districts receive 55% of the appropriation, and small rural districts receive 45% of the appropriation. The act uses the districts' funded pupil count for the 2022-23 budget year. For the 2023-24 budget year, a district's at-risk funding is the greater of the district's at-risk funding amount for the 2022-23 budget year or the 2023-24 budget year. The act amends eligibility criteria for the mill levy override match program to exclude an otherwise eligible school district from receiving a state-funded override mill match if the sum of the district's override mills is equal to or greater than the district's override mill capacity, as defined by statute. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act transfers $23,376,536 from the state education fund to the mill levy override match fund. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act appropriates $300,000 from the state education fund to the department of education (department) for the purpose of reimbursing schools for expenses related to replacing an American Indian mascot. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act appropriates $10 million from the state education fund to be distributed to preschool providers that are a school of a school district, a district charter school, or an institute charter school, subject to requirements. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act appropriates $1,058,115 from the state education fund to support universal screening to identify gifted children through second grade. The act specifies that for the purpose of any law, with certain exceptions, that applies to or exempts a public entity or a public official, a charter school has the same status as a school district, and certain persons affiliated with the charter school have the same status as a complementary counterpart in a school district. Furthermore, the act clarifies the application of certain laws to charter schools. The act permits the department, school districts, and institute charter schools to consider life-cycle costs when contracting for technology. Under current law, every 3 years, the department is required to prepare a report and evaluation on the successes or failures of charter schools, school reform efforts, and suggested changes to laws affecting charter schools. The act makes this an annual requirement starting in the 2023-24 budget year. Under current law, a new at-risk measure in the public school funding formula must be implemented in the 2023-24 budget year. The act extends the implementation of this requirement to the 2024-25 budget year and requires the department to conduct pre-implementation modeling and testing using the new at-risk measure and report modeling and testing findings to the education committees of the senate and house of representatives and the joint budget committee. The act creates a public school finance task force for the purpose of examining and making recommendations concerning school finance. The task force is required to submit a report to the education committees of the senate and house of representatives and the joint budget committee by January 31, 2024. Furthermore, the task force is required to set parameters to examine the adequacy of school finance in Colorado, and the department is required to contract with 2 independent entities to report their findings by January 3, 2025. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act appropriates $408,625 from the state education fund for administration related to the implementation of the task force. The act amends certain requirements for a charter school's application for financial assistance for public school capital construction. The act extends child nutrition school lunch protection program funding to be used to offset the costs incurred by a facility school in providing lunch to students who are placed in the facility and eligible to participate in the program. The act excludes the costs associated with providing for an independent evaluation from the 20% of the money appropriated to the Colorado imagination library program to be used by the contractor for operating costs. Starting in the 2024-25 budget year, the act creates a formula for the funding of mill levy equalization for all institute charter schools. For the 2023-24 budget year, the act appropriates: $2.5 million to the mill levy equalization fund from the general fund; $10 million to the department for state aid for charter school facilities; and $500,000 to the department for the purpose of translating individualized education program documents, contingent upon House Bill 23-1263 becoming law. Makes an appropriation made in section 25 of the act effective only if House Bill 23-1263 becomes law. APPROVED by Governor May 15, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 15, 2023 NOTE: House Bill 23-1263 became law, effective May 25, 2023. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)