Colorado Bills

With regard to students enrolled in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or second grade, the bill prohibits a school district, board of cooperative services, charter school, or public preschool program (enrolling entity) from expelling a student, except as specifically required by federal law, and allows the enrolling entity to impose an out-of-school suspension on the student only under specified circumstances for 3 school days. Under additional specified circumstances, the enrolling entity may extend the out-of-school suspension to a total of 5 school days. Each school district and charter school must ensure that its school discipline code reflects the requirements specified in the bill. The state board of education cannot waive the provisions concerning expulsion and suspension of young students for school districts or charter schools. The bill specifies that school districts are required to adopt prevention and early intervention strategies to reduce the need for early childhood and early elementary grade suspensions and expulsions. The bill expands the expelled and at-risk student services grant program to include services for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary grade students and their families. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

There is a current crime of knowingly destroying, breaking, removing, or otherwise tampering with equipment associated with oil or gas gathering operations. The bill increases the penalty from a class 2 misdemeanor to a class 6 felony. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

As part of the Colorado oil and gas conservation commission's (commission) authority to regulate oil and gas operations to prevent and mitigate significant adverse environmental impacts to protect public health, safety, and welfare, the commission requires oil and gas production facilities and wells to be located at least 1,000 feet from school buildings and other high occupancy buildings. The bill clarifies that the minimum 1,000-foot distance from which newly permitted production facilities and wells must be located from any school applies to the school property line and not the school building. The bill further clarifies that it does not apply if a school commences operations near production facilities or wells that are already actively in use or permitted and, with respect to property owned by a school district, the distance requirement applies to the school building, other facilities used for school activities, and real property on which a future permanent or temporary school building is planned within 5 years after a production facility application is filed. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

The bill creates the 'Rewarding Excellence With Annual Redirected Dollars Act' or 'REWARD Act' (program) to award excellence funding to school districts that achieve a level of success in student performance above that of their peer districts. The bill defines 'school district' to include school districts and the state charter school institute (institute). The bill directs the department of education (department) to annually identify peer school districts by categorizing all school districts as either non-rural or rural, as defined in the bill, and then group the school districts within those categories based on demographically similar student populations. Once peer school districts are identified, the department shall compare those school districts to determine which school districts outperform their peer school districts using objective measures of student performance. The bill includes eligibility criteria for participation in the program. The department shall annually award excellence funding to the top 6 highest-performing non-rural school districts and to the top 6 highest-performing rural school districts, for a total of 12 districts. The program is funded by redirecting 1% of statewide total program funding, after application of the negative factor, for the applicable budget year. The department shall reduce the state's share of total program funding for the applicable budget year by the amount of excellence funding, proportionately reducing each school district's state share of total program funding. The department shall distribute 15% of the excellence funding to the top 12 highest-performing school districts in equal shares, and the remaining 85% of excellence funding to those school districts on a per-pupil basis. School districts, including the institute, shall transfer to a district charter school or an institute charter school 100% of the charter school's per-pupil allocation of the total amount of excellence funding received by the school district or the institute. The program is implemented beginning in the 2018-19 budget year, and excellence funding is based on the school districts' student performance in the budget year immediately preceding the applicable budget year. The department shall reduce the amount of excellence funding by the department's reasonable and necessary direct costs incurred in implementing the program. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

The bill requires barbers, hairstylists, cosmetologists, estheticians, and nail technicians, as part of the requirement to renew their professional licenses, to take a one-time training course for one hour on domestic violence and sexual assault awareness. The bill does not impose a mandatory reporting requirement on these professionals and specifically grants them immunity from civil and criminal liability for reporting or failing to report potential domestic violence or sexual assault. The director of the division of professions and occupations in the department of regulatory agencies, in consultation with one or more statewide organization with a primary purpose of serving victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, shall promulgate rules establishing standards for the training course. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

The bill establishes that a residential storage condominium unit is a residential improvement. This allows the unit to be assessed as residential real property, which currently has an assessment ratio of 7.96%, instead of as nonresidential property, which has an assessment ratio of 29%. A residential storage condominium unit is defined to mean a building that is: A unit under the 'Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act'; Used by its owner to store items from or related to the owner's Colorado residence; and Not used for storage related to a business. For a property to qualify as a residential storage condominium unit, the owner of the building unit must submit an affidavit of intended use. The property tax administrator is required to establish the form of the affidavit and to prepare and publish standards for assessors to determine whether a property qualifies as a residential storage condominium unit. The bill establishes penalties for a person that knowingly provides false information on the affidavit. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

The bill prohibits a state or political subdivision from: Providing the race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, or religious affiliation of a Colorado resident to the federal government without determining it is for a legal and constitutional purpose; Aiding or assisting the federal government in creating, maintaining, or updating a registry for the purpose of identifying Colorado residents based on race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, or religious affiliation; Aiding or assisting the federal government or a federal agency in marking or otherwise placing a physical or electronic identifier on a person based on his or her race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, or religious affiliation; and Aiding or assisting, including using state or local lands or resources, the federal government in interning, arresting, or detaining a person based on his or her race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, or religious affiliation.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)