• Supportive Learning Environments for K-12 Students
• Medically Necessary Treatment in Schools
• Public School Contract Terms and Conditions
• Licensed Personnel Performance Evaluation
• Special Education Services in Charter Schools
• Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (FAMLI)
• What to do with an SPU?

To access the sample policies distributed with this Special Policy Update, click here.

This SPU includes only district policies, but an SPU for BOCES policies is upcoming in early spring 2023. If applicable, please plan to review and implement these updates for your BOCES once these are released.

Supportive Learning Environments for K-12 Students

Effective May 26, 2022, the Colorado legislature passed HB22-1376, Supportive Learning Environments for K-12 Students, which made the following changes relating to school discipline, use of restraint and seclusion, data reporting and availability, enforcement authority, and school resource officers (SROs):

CDE Data Reporting and Availability

• By August 31, 2023, requires CDE to standardize the reporting method that school districts use to collect and report data relating to suspensions, expulsions, arrests, referrals, chronic absenteeism, incidents of violence, harassment, bullying, and existing safe school reporting requirements;

• By August 31, 2024, requires CDE to create publicly-accessible district profile reports including a district’s chronic absenteeism rates, number of in-school and out-of-school suspensions, number of expulsions, number of students handcuffed, number of referrals and arrests, number of students physically restrained, and number of students placed in seclusion (these profiles must also include data collected relating to school climate); and

• Adds school counselors, school social workers, and school nurses to the list of professionals who must be counted and included in the CDE commissioner’s annual report to the State Board, as well as expands the report to track part-time employees.

Safe School Reporting Requirements

• Updates existing safe school reporting requirements to provide that district policies requiring the principal of each school in the district to annually submit a written report to the local board be in accordance with the standardized methods identified and adopted through CDE’s data standardization stakeholder process;
  

• Requires reports to include any disciplinary incidents involving (1) a student being willfully disobedient or openly and persistently defiant or repeatedly interfering with the school’s ability to provide educational opportunities to, and a safe environment for, other students or (2) other violations of the code of conduct and discipline that resulted in documentation of the conduct in a student’s record.
  

• In these instances, in addition to providing information on such disciplinary incidents in the compiled report, the report filing also needs to include school and district code; location of incidents; description of the behaviors that constituted the violations; interventions or de-escalation strategies attempted leading up to the incident; and descriptive information of the student or students involved in the incidents, including, but not limited to, gender, grade level, ethnicity, race, and whether the student has Section 504 accommodations or an individualized educational plan (IEP).
  

• Requires local school boards to annually review and submit data to CDE concerning the number and types of disciplinary incidents and the disciplinary actions taken in response to such incidents.
  

• CDE is then required to collect such data at the individual student level and report disaggregated student data by gender; grade level; race; ethnicity; disability; whether the student has a 504 plan or IEP; English language learner; free and reduced-price lunch; and homeless status; CDE may not report individual student data in meeting the bill’s requirements.

Use of Restraints 

• Amends the definition of “physical restraint” to mean the use of bodily, physical force to involuntarily limit an individual’s freedom of movement for more than 1 minute.
• If a physical restraint is more than 1 minute but less than 5 minutes, the notification requirement is a written notice to the parent on the day of the restraint; the notice must include the date, student’s name, and the number of restraints that day that lasted between 1 and 5 minutes.
• If a physical restraint is 5 minutes or more, the school administration must mail, fax, or email a written report of the incident to the student’s parent no more than 5 calendar days after the use of the restraint on the student.
• By June 30, 2023, and every June 30 thereafter, requires school districts to submit the data from the annual review on the use of restraints to CDE;

• Requires CDE to make training available on the Protection of Individuals from Restraint and Seclusion Act and on CDE’s rules for administration of such act to individuals certified in the use of restraint;

• Establishes CDE enforcement authority over the restraint investigation decisions;

• Prohibits an SRO or law enforcement officer (LEO), acting in the officer’s official capacity on school grounds, in a school vehicle, or at a school activity or sanctioned event from using handcuffs on a student, unless there is a danger to themselves or others or unless handcuffs are used during a custodial arrest that requires transport.

Seclusion

• Require that a seclusion room, if used, have at least one window for monitoring when the door is closed. If a window is not feasible, monitoring would have to be possible through a video camera; a student placed in a seclusion room would need to be continually monitored. Further, the room would need to be a safe space free of injurious items and must not be used by school staff for storage, custodial, or office space.

SROs

• Requires the Peace Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) Board, with respect to the hiring, training, and evaluation of SROs and in consultation with stakeholders–including school board members, SROs, and others–to create a model policy for selecting SROs. CDE is required to post the model policy on its website and distribute the policy to districts and charters for consideration and possible adoption.

• The model policy must, at a minimum, require:
• A candidate to demonstrate, whenever possible, a record of experience developing positive relationships with youth, which may include participation in youth or community policing programs;
• A candidate to voluntarily apply to serve as an SRO;
• The employing law enforcement agency and school district to jointly create an evaluation process to evaluate SROs; and
• That a local board of education or superintendent may terminate a contract with an SRO based on the findings of an evaluation.

Accordingly, CASB has taken the following action and updated the following sample policies:

• CASB helped P.O.S.T. organize a task force to develop the SRO policy. The task force is in progress of developing this policy by meeting regularly and engaging stakeholder feedback. 

• ADD and ADD-E Safe Schools to include information on the Department of Education’s data standardization process; and

• JKA, JKA-R, JKA-E-1 and JKA-E-2 Use of Physical Intervention and Restraint to change the definitions of restraint and update requirements for seclusion rooms;

• Rules for the Administration of the Protection of Persons from Restraint Act - Effective November 30, 2017(PDF)
• Proposed Rules for the Administration of the Protection of Persons from Restraint Act (PDF)
• House Bill 22-1376 Supportive Learning Environments For K-12 Students - Effective May 26, 2022

Medically Necessary Treatment in Schools

HB22-1260, Access to Medically Necessary Services for Students was passed in the 2022 legislative session effective August 10, 2022. This bill requires administrative units (AUs) to adopt a policy that addresses how a student who has a prescription from a qualified health-care provider for medically necessary treatment (including applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy) receives such treatment in the school setting as required by applicable federal and state laws, including Section 504 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This policy must be adopted by July 1, 2023, and must:

• Include a notice to the parent/legal guardian of the student that Section 504 and the ADA provide rights and protections to students to access medically necessary treatment required by the student to have meaningful access to the benefits of a public education, or to attend school without risks to the student’s health or safety due to the student’s disabling medical condition;

• Address the process in which a private health-care specialist may observe the student, collaborate with instructional personnel, and provide medically necessary treatment in the school setting; and

• Provide notice of a student’s right to appeal the decision of an AU concerning access to medically necessary treatment in the school setting.

This policy must be publicly available on the AU’s website and available to parents/legal guardians and students upon request.

Beginning July 1, 2024, and each July 1 afterward, each AU must compile and provide the total number of requests for access to a student by a private health-care specialist–and whether the access was authorized or denied–to CDE.

Beginning January 2025, and each January afterward, CDE is required to make the information reported by AUs available on its website and report the information to the House of Representatives and Senate Education Committees as part of the existing SMART presentation.

As a result of this legislation, CASB drafted a new policy and accompanying regulation.

 
Other resources

• HB22-1260: Access To Medically Necessary Services For Students | Colorado General Assembly
• Confidentiality of Student Records Memo
• Special Education Overview - School Board Member Workbook Chapter 3

Public School Contract Terms and Conditions

HB22-1252 was passed in the 2022 legislative session and applies to contracts executed on or after July 1, 2022. This bill amends certain provisions relating to public school contracts to align with an existing provision in the Procurement Code. The bill requires specified provisions to be included in a public school contract, states that a public school contract is deemed to include such provisions if they are inadvertently or otherwise omitted, and specifies that certain specified types of terms or conditions in a public school contract, including any provision that conflicts with Colorado law or rules or any provision required to be included in a public school contract, are void. 

Other resources

• HB22-1252: Public School Contract Terms And Conditions | Colorado General Assembly

Licensed Personnel Performance Evaluations

Colorado legislators passed SB22-070, Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade Licensed Personnel Performance Evaluations, in 2022. This bill directs CDE to create rubrics for evaluating personnel who are consistently rated highly effective and for measuring the performance of licensed personnel in a limited number of specialized teacher or principal roles. CDE must also provide free evaluator training and other support for conducting evaluations.

The bill also directs the State Board to adopt rules ensuring that, for evaluations completed for the 2023-24 school year and onwards, 30% of an educator's evaluation is based on the academic growth of students (with it being permissible for up to 10% of this 30% to be based on measures of collective student academic growth) and the remainder of the evaluation is based on the educator's attainment of quality standards. Evaluations for licensed personnel who have been employed for less than one year must not include data that was created before their date of employment with the school district or BOCES.

Accordingly, CASB has updated sample Policy GCO and GCO-R.

Other resources

• SB22-070 Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade Licensed Personnel Performance Evaluations | Colorado General Assembly
• Fact Sheet from CDE regarding Evaluations and SB22-69 and SB22-70

Special Education Services in Charter Schools

HB22-1294 was passed in 2022, effective August 10, 2022. This bill makes several changes relating to special education (sped) services in charter schools, including:

• Allowing a charter school to develop and administer an enrollment preference plan to give preference to children with disabilities (ensuring compliance with providing a FAPE in the least restrictive environment pursuant to IDEA) and allowing a charter school to allow parents to voluntarily provide information regarding the existence of a child's disability;

• Allowing district-authorized charter schools to participate in the Charter School Institute’s administrative unit (AU) for special education purposes; and

• Allowing the State Board to designate a charter school network or charter school collaborative that meets specified criteria as an alternative AU to provide sped services.

The bill also establishes the financial responsibilities of charter schools and alternative AUs and clarifies that a charter school is not required to pay its authorizing school district for federally required educational services that are not available to the school.

As such, we have reviewed and updated LBD*, LBD*R, and LBDB*-2, Relations with Charter Schools. 

 
Other resources

• Special Education Services In Charter Schools | Colorado General Assembly
• Special Education Overview - School Board Member Workbook Chapter 3
• Special Education Directors' Corner | CDE

Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (FAMLI)

In 2020 Colorado voters approved a new paid medical and family leave law, Proposition 118, also known as the Colorado Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act or FAMLI. This law creates a state-run paid family and medical leave insurance program that allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave (those who experience pregnancy or childbirth complications will receive an additional 4 weeks). An eligible employee may take leave for the following reasons:

• To care for a new child during their first year after the birth, adoption, or placement through foster care of that child;

• To care for a family member with a serious health condition;

• To care for their own serious health condition

• When a family member is on active duty military service or being called to active duty military service; and

• When the individual or the individual’s family member is a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault

Both employers and employees will pay into a new Family and Medical Leave Insurance Fund; the state will then use money in the fund to pay wage benefits to employees during their leave, similar to unemployment insurance.

Options for local government participation.

Local governments, including school districts and BOCES (collectively referred to as school districts), have three options regarding their participation in the FAMLI program, and the policy was updated to reflect these options and provide more information.

Other resources

• Colorado FAMLI
• For questions regarding FAMLI, email CDLE_FAMLI_info@state.co.us 

What to do with an SPU?

Whether you are a seasoned policy veteran or new to policy work, below are some tips for reviewing the information contained in the CASB SPU. CASB sample policies cannot simply be adopted “as is,” so please consider the following as you plan to update your district’s local policies: Review the new or updated sample policies;

• Review the new or updated sample policies;
• Make decisions on optional language included in the sample policies;
• Add district-specific information;
• Consider local needs and circumstances;
• Engage in board and community conversations;
• Remove CASB note boxes after the board has considered the information contained in the note box;
• Remove the CASB copyright information;
• Consult with legal counsel;
• Present the policies to the board for review and adoption; and
• Call the CASB policy team with any questions!