Child welfare - foster care prevention services - qualified residential treatment programs - federal compliance. The act authorizes the department of human services (department) to establish and implement a foster care prevention services program for families with children and youth who are candidates for foster care but who can safely remain at home with receipt of foster care prevention services. Eligible recipients of foster care prevention services include children and youth and their parents, legal custodians, legal guardians, and kin caregivers when their needs are directly related to the safety, permanent placement, or well-being of the child or youth. If a child or youth is placed in a qualified residential treatment program (QRTP), the court or the administrative review division of the department is required to review the assessment and needs of the child or youth and determine whether placement in the QRTP is appropriate. The act requires a county department of human or social services (county department) to submit certain evidence to the court during each review and permanency hearing of a child or youth placed in a QRTP. A county department may provide foster care prevention services to a child or youth and the parents or kin caregivers of the child or youth upon the receipt of a report of intrafamilial abuse or neglect or human trafficking. The act adds the federal "Family First Prevention Services Act" as a program to be administered by the department. The act also adds foster care prevention services to the definition of child welfare services. The act requires the department to implement the utilization of foster care prevention services and qualified residential treatment programs when the federal government approves the state's five year Title IV-E prevention plan. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
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Traffic infractions - passing authorized snow plows in echelon formation - appropriation. The act states that a person commits a class A traffic offense if the person passes a snowplow that is operated by a state, county, or local government, displaying its lights, and performing its service function in echelon formation with one or more other such snowplows. "Echelon formation" means a formation in which snowplows are arranged diagonally, with each unit stationed behind and to the right, or behind and to the left, of the unit ahead. $3,375 is appropriated to the department of revenue to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Traction control equipment. The act amends the traction-control statute, which requires certain equipment during a winter storm, by: Updating the equipment options to authorize current technology and traction options; Setting minimum standards for tires; and Requiring the traction equipment to be carried on I-70 between milepost 133 (Dotsero) and milepost 259 (Morrison) from September 1 through May 31 for icy or snow-packed conditions.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Reinsurance program - creation - payments for high-cost insurance claims - program contingent on federal waiver or funding approval - special fees - premium tax revenues - other funding sources - cash fund created - appropriation - repeal. The act authorizes the commissioner of insurance to apply to the secretary of the United States department of health and human services for a state innovation waiver, federal funding, or both, to allow the state to implement and operate a two-year reinsurance program to assist health insurers in paying high-cost insurance claims. The state cannot implement the program absent waiver or funding approval from the secretary. The program is established as an enterprise for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution so long as the program satisfies enterprise status requirements. The commissioner is to establish payment parameters at levels to effectuate targeted insurance premium reductions. The payment parameters include: The attachment point, above which claims costs are eligible for reinsurance payments; The coinsurance rate at which the program will reimburse carriers for claims above the attachment point; and The reinsurance cap, above which claims costs are no longer eligible for reinsurance payments from the program. The commissioner is authorized to assess special fees against hospitals and, under specified circumstances, against health insurers to provide funding for the program. Additionally, the program is to receive money from the following sources to operate the program: Federal pass-through funding or other federal funds made available for the program; For the 2020-21 and 2021-22 fiscal years, an amount of premium tax revenues collected under current law that exceeds the amount collected in calendar year 2019; $15 million in 2020 and $40 million in 2021 from the general fund, contingent on the passage of House Bill 19-1245; and Any money the general assembly appropriates to the program fund. The act creates the reinsurance program cash fund and continuously appropriates the money in the fund to the division of insurance to operate the program. The commissioner is also authorized to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations from private or public sources. The program repeals on September 1, 2023, unless the federal government denies the waiver or funding request, in which case the program repeals upon that denial. $785,904 is appropriated to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the division of insurance to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Dental program for seniors - review - maximum reimbursement rates. The act adds to the duties of the department of health care policy and financing (department) under the Colorado dental health care program for low-income seniors (program) to review the operation and effectiveness of the program in the next annual report. Qualified grantees under the program and the department shall report recommendations concerning the operations and effectiveness of the program. Under current law, the senior dental advisory committee recommends to the medical services board the maximum reimbursement rate for dental procedures under the Colorado dental health care program for low-income seniors that cannot be less than the reimbursement rate previously adopted by the state board of health for the program. The act changes the maximum reimbursement rate that the committee may recommend to not less than the medicaid fee-for-service rate. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
READ act - programming - teacher training - evaluation - distribution of money - appropriations. The act makes several changes concerning implementation of the "Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act" (READ act) by school districts, charter schools, and boards of cooperative services that operate schools (local education providers) as follows: Requiring that instructional programming and services for teaching reading be focused on the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency including oral skills, and reading comprehension; Directing each local education provider to include in its performance plan specified information concerning the reading assessments, curriculum, instructional programs, and intervention instruction and services used and, for certain local education providers, the plan for providing professional development for teachers; Specifying that students with significant reading deficiencies and students who read below grade level must receive educational services in a daily literacy block for the length of time indicated by research; Requiring each local education provider that receives money through the READ act to provide evidence-based training in teaching reading to kindergarten and first- through third-grade teachers; and Encouraging local education providers to partner with adjacent public libraries to enhance instruction in literacy. The act directs the department of education (department) to develop and implement a public information campaign to emphasize the importance of learning to read by third grade and to highlight the local education providers that achieve high percentages of third-grade students who are reading at grade level. The act directs the department to contract with an independent evaluator to evaluate the implementation of the READ act in the state and evaluate whether a local education provider's use of per-pupil intervention money or early literacy grant program money results in students making progress toward reading competency. The act changes the distribution of money appropriated from the early literacy fund for the 2019-20 budget year by reducing the amount distributed as per-pupil intervention money, increasing the amount distributed through the early literacy grant fund, and adding distributions to pay for the public information campaign, the independent evaluator, and teacher training. For the 2020-21 budget year and budget years thereafter, the act specifies the purposes for which the money in the early literacy fund may be appropriated in amounts specified in the annual general appropriations bill. The act changes the procedure for distributing the per-pupil intervention money by: Requiring a local education provider to provide information and meet certain requirements in order to receive the money; Authorizing the department to monitor and, if necessary, audit the use of the money throughout the budget year; Expanding the allowable uses of the per-pupil intervention money to include purchasing core reading instructional programs and purchasing technology, including software, to assist in assessing and monitoring student progress; and Capping the amount of per-pupil intervention money that a local education provider may retain from year to year. The act amends the early literacy grant program to allow a school district to apply for a district-level grant or a school-level grant and to prohibit the state board of education (state board) from restricting an applicant's use of any of the approved reading assessments. The act also provides that if the department, at the completion of a grant, determines that the program implemented with the grant money was successful in moving students toward reading competency, the state board must automatically renew the grant and increase the grant amount, if necessary, to enable the grant recipient to expand the program. The act requires a local education provider to report the scores attained by students on the interim reading assessments if the local education provider uses per-pupil intervention money to purchase instructional programming in reading. The act expands reporting requirements to include information regarding student academic growth to standard in reading. Each local education provider must submit, in accordance with privacy laws, information requested to complete the independent evaluation of the implementation of the READ act, and the department, the independent evaluator, and the local education provider must collaborate to minimize the impact on instructional time caused by increased reporting. For the 2019-20 fiscal year, the act appropriates money from the marijuana tax cash fund and the early literacy fund to the department as follows: $7,500,000 for the early literacy competitive grant program; $2,702,557 for teacher training; $1,664,570 for early literacy program administration, technical assistance, and monitoring; $750,000 for the independent evaluation; $500,000 for the public information campaign; and $26,261,551 for early literacy program per-pupil intervention money. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
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
Sex crimes - unlawful electronic sexual communication - minors. The act creates the crime of unlawful electronic sexual communication. The act prohibits a person from knowingly importuning, inviting, or enticing through communication via a computer network or system, telephone network, or data network or by a text message or instant message a person whom the actor knows or believes to be 15 years of age or older but less than18 years of age and at least 4 years younger than the actor, and the actor committing the offense is one in a position of trust with respect to that person, to: Expose or touch the person's own or another person's intimate parts while communicating with the actor via a computer network or system, telephone network, or data network or by a text message or instant message; or Observe the actor's intimate parts via a computer network or system, telephone network, or data network or by a text message or instant message. A violation of this provision is a class 6 felony. The act prohibits a person from knowingly communicating over a computer or computer network, telephone network, or data network or by a text message or instant message to a person the actor knows or believes to be 15 years of age or older but less than 18 years of age and at least 4 years younger than the actor and, in that communication or in any subsequent communication, describes explicit sexual conduct and, in connection with that description, makes a statement persuading or inviting the person to meet the actor for any purpose, and the actor committing the offense is one in a position of trust with respect to that person. A violation of this provision is a class 6 felony, but it is a class 5 felony if committed with the intent to meet for the purpose of engaging in sexual exploitation or sexual contact. The act require a person who commits unlawful electronic sexual communication to undergo sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender, and the defendant is subject to the sex offense against children procedures. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Marijuana cash fund - marijuana tax cash fund - transfers. The act requires the state treasurer to make 2 transfers from the marijuana cash fund to the marijuana tax cash fund. On July 1, 2019, the state treasurer will transfer $914,416, and on July 1, 2020, the state treasurer will transfer $890,901.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Capital-related transfers of money. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act transfers: $90,695,989 from the general fund to the capital construction fund; $42 million from the general fund to the controlled maintenance trust fund; $12,342,676 from the general fund to the information technology capital account of the capital construction fund; $500,000 from the general fund exempt account of the general fund to the capital construction fund; and $1 million from the preservation grant program account of the state historical fund to the capital construction fund for repainting of the interior of the dome of the state capitol building.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More