The act allows a candidate who is on the ballot for an election for the office of United States congress, state office, or district office of state concern and is subject to a recount to select one watcher in addition to any watchers otherwise selected for the recount. The act also allows a candidate that is on the ballot for an election coordinated by the county clerk and recorder that is not for the office of United States congress, state office, or district office of state concern and is subject to a recount to select one watcher for the recount in addition to any watchers otherwise selected for the recount. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act grants a right for defense counsel to review a tangible object related to a criminal case at least 35 days before a trial, except for cases involving sexually exploitative material, and create confidential work product following their review. Law enforcement shall designate a specific location for the evidence viewing and be present during the evidence viewing to ensure chain of custody and integrity of the evidence. The act does not limit the defense's ability to request testing or a hearing, or the court's ability to conduct a hearing, on a tangible piece of evidence. Law enforcement officers and other state officials may record an evidence viewing by either the prosecution or the defense for the purpose of ensuring the chain of custody, integrity, or safety of the evidence held by the law enforcement agency, and must provide notice to the prosecuting authority and defense if a recording occurs. Law enforcement may view the recording for purposes of organization or cataloguing the evidence, or as authorized by a court order. A trial court may enter protective orders relating to a recording of an evidence viewing. When a member of the defense team is viewing evidence and is incidentally recorded on a law enforcement body-worn camera, it is not an interaction with law enforcement for purposes of the body-worn camera statute and is not for the purpose of enforcing the law or investigating possible violations of the law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The Colorado rangers law enforcement shared reserve, commonly known as the Colorado rangers (CLER), is a statewide law enforcement agency that has been established as a political subdivision of the state through the execution of an intergovernmental agreement for the public purpose of promoting the safety, security, and general welfare of all Coloradans by establishing a peace officers standards and training board (P.O.S.T. board) certified statewide shared peace officer reserve force. Sections 1 through 4 of the act update laws relating to civil defense workers and peace officers to clarify the status of the CLER as a governmental entity created by intergovernmental agreement rather than as a volunteer organization, as it was prior to 2018, the requirement that a Colorado ranger be a P.O.S.T. board certified peace officer, and the scope of a Colorado ranger's authority. Section 5: Authorizes the board of the CLER to establish policies to allow compensation to be paid to a Colorado ranger if the Colorado ranger: Is deployed as a peace officer to a jurisdiction for an extended period, as defined or described in the policies; or Is deployed as a peace officer outside the state as authorized by a specified interstate compact for any length of time; and Authorizes the CLER to accept gifts, grants, and donations.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the Colorado bureau of investigation (CBI) to spend $3,000,000 in specifically appropriated money from House Bill 24-1430, concerning the provision for payment of the expenses of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the state of Colorado, and of its agencies and institutions, for and during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024, except as otherwise noted, on backlogged DNA evidence and sexual assault kit tests, as well as DNA retesting related to CBI's laboratory misconduct that was discovered in 2023. Additionally, the act allows CBI to contract with external labs to perform the testing. The act requires CBI to create a dashboard on the department of public safety's website to update the public on the backlog at least every 30 days. CBI shall provide the general assembly with updates on the sexual assault kit backlog, including the number of cases pending, the number of tests CBI's lab conducted, the number of tests CBI contracted out, an update on CBI's laboratory staffing levels, the average turnaround time for a sexual assault kit test, and other relevant data points every 30 days from March 10, 2025, through June 30, 2026. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act broadens the scope of the managed care entities that a local county department of human or social services may enter into memorandums of understanding with to coordinate and manage services for children and families who would benefit from integrated multiagency services. The act allows a court with jurisdiction to access records that are created by an individualized service and support team. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
A municipality has had full police power and control (authority) over land that it acquires outside its municipal limits for use as parks, parkways, boulevards, or roads. The act extends this authority to land that a municipality acquires for open space and natural areas and clarifies that this authority extends to all such acquired land whether or not it is open or closed to the public. The act exempts from this authority acquired land that is within the exterior boundaries of an Indian reservation. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
No later than June 30, 2026, the act requires the department of public safety (DPS), in collaboration with the behavioral health administration (BHA), to consult with stakeholders to identify: Existing resources and model programs that communities throughout Colorado utilize when responding to behavioral health crises, including, but not limited to, co-responder programs, alternative response programs, and mobile crisis response programs, and the reimbursement shortages and gaps within the continuum of care for behavioral health crisis response; and The reimbursement shortages and gaps within the continuum of care for behavioral health crisis response, and reimbursement and funding options that are available at the state and federal levels to address the shortages and gaps, including funding for treatment in place. The act requires DPS to compile a list of the existing resources and model programs, and report reimbursement shortages and gaps identified by the stakeholder group and develop recommendations for addressing the shortages and gaps. The act requires DPS to make the resources, model programs, and recommendations publicly available on DPS's website. On or before January 1, 2027, the act requires the BHA, in collaboration with the department of health care policy and financing (HCPF), to provide information to the general assembly regarding the reimbursement shortages and gaps within the continuum of care for behavioral health crisis response and the reimbursement and funding options at the state and federal level that are available to address the shortages and gaps, including funding for treatment in place. The act requires HCPF to reimburse an institution for mental diseases for providing inpatient mental health treatment to a member for up to 60 days or to the extent permitted by federal law. Current law requires each person detained for an emergency mental health hold to receive an evaluation as soon as possible after the person is presented to a facility, and the evaluation may, but is not required to, include an assessment to determine if the person continues to meet the criteria for an emergency mental health hold and requires further mental health care in a facility designated by the commissioner. The act requires the evaluation to include the assessment determination. The act requires a hospital that is subject to the federal "Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act" to only discharge a person placed on an emergency mental health hold if the person no longer meets the criteria for an emergency mental health hold; except that a hospital may transfer the person to another hospital if the hospital is unable to provide the appropriate medical or behavioral health care to the person and the receiving hospital agrees to the transfer. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
If a prospective family pays a child care center, family child care home, or neighborhood youth organization (child care program) an application fee, a deposit fee, or wait list fee and is not enrolled in the child care program after six months of paying the fee, the act makes the fee is refundable. A child care program may retain a reasonable administrative fee determined by the department of early childhood (department) before issuing a refund to the prospective family. The prospective family must submit a written request to the child care program to receive a refund. Upon receiving the written request from the prospective family, the child care program shall refund the fees to the prospective family and may remove the prospective family from the wait list. Prospective families who are offered a child care slot with a child care program and who refuse the child care slot shall not receive a refund. If a family enrolls in a child care program and signs a contract with the child care program provider, the terms of the contract, including fees outlined in the contract, are not subject to the requirements of the act. A child care program shall provide a fee schedule and the process on fee refunds to a prospective family and an enrolled family. A child care program may publish the fee schedule digitally on the child care program's website. During the department's periodic inspections, or if a complaint is filed regarding fees, the act directs the department to review the information in the child care center's policy for establishing fees to confirm the child care center is complying with the law. If the department finds the child care center is not compliant, the child care center has 30 days after the date of inspection to comply. If the child care center does not comply within 30 days after the date of inspection, the department may take further disciplinary action. The department shall not take disciplinary action against a child care program that makes a good faith administrative error or is not in compliance for the first time. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Beginning July 1, 2025, the act increases by one the number of district court judges in the fourth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and twenty-third judicial districts and increases by one the number of county court judges in La Plata county. Beginning July 1, 2026, the act increases by one the number of district court judges in the fourth, seventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth judicial districts and increases by one the number of county court judges in Larimer county, Douglas county, Mesa county, and Eagle county. Current law requires district court judges regularly assigned to Arapahoe county to maintain offices within Arapahoe county. The act allows the district court judges assigned to Arapahoe county to maintain offices outside of the county seat. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $2,638,326 from the general fund to the judicial department to implement the increased number of judges and appropriates $621,337 from the general fund to the judicial department for use by the office of state public defender. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under Colorado law, a person may file a claim with the division of parks and wildlife (division) for compensation for damages to property caused by wildlife, and the division must review and investigate that claim. The act requires that the personal information of a person, information related to site assessments received by the division through the claim procedures, and personal information associated with proactive nonlethal measures is kept confidential and not disclosed pursuant to the "Colorado Open Records Act". The act excludes from this prohibition: Information about nonlethal predator-livestock conflict minimization measures that does not reveal the identity of the person or the person's business; Nonidentifying information of county-level data highlighting the number or dollar amount of claims made to the division, the number of claims that were settled and the monetary amounts of those settlements, the number of claims that are pending at the time of a request for disclosure, and the number of claims that were denied and the reasons for denial; and Personal information that becomes public by the actions of the subject of the personal information or the subject's agent. The act prohibits bringing or maintaining a private action challenging the division's determination that a person or the person's agent has taken actions or made statements that led to the person's personal information becoming publicly known. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act establishes uniform confidentiality standards for the protection of taxpayer information used or obtained in connection with a sales or use tax investigation performed by a third-party auditor on behalf of a local taxing jurisdiction. Except for certain limited circumstances, the act prohibits third-party auditors from divulging or making known in any way to any person information that is obtained from a sales or use tax investigation on behalf of a local taxing jurisdiction or disclosed in any document, report, or return filed in connection with local sales or use taxes. Third-party auditors may disclose taxpayer information in certain limited circumstances, including disclosure to: An official, employee, hearing officer, attorney, or other public agent of the local taxing jurisdiction who is authorized to receive such information in connection with the local taxing jurisdiction's sales or use tax investigation performed by the third-party auditor; A requesting taxpayer, or the taxpayer's authorized agent, of the taxpayer's own tax filings; The department of revenue (department) for purposes of statistical analysis and publication as authorized by current law; and The department and the federal internal revenue service as necessary and pertinent to a taxpayer's compliance or failure to comply with state or federal tax law. A taxpayer may waive the confidentiality requirements for the taxpayer's own filings. A violation of the confidentiality provisions is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 per violation. The act also clarifies the scope of the authority of the executive director of the department to share taxpayer information with statutory local governments, special districts, and requesting home rule jurisdictions as necessary to facilitate dispute resolution, coordination, intergovernmental agreements, and information sharing between the department and such local governments consistent with law, which prohibits the disclosure of any such shared information to any third party. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act provides immunity from civil liability for damage or injury to persons or property, other than that which arises from gross negligence or willful and wanton misconduct, to a landowner who, in good faith and without compensation, allows access to the landowner's property for entry and exit in connection with an emergency. An emergency is a fire, a rescue call, a hazardous materials incident, a natural or human-caused disaster, or an incident reasonably determined to be an emergency by a first responder. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
