Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee. The bill requires each school district board of education, institute charter school board for a charter school authorized by the state charter school institute, or governing board of a board of cooperative services (BOCES) to adopt a policy to address disproportionate disciplinary practices in public schools. Each school district, charter school, institute charter school, or BOCES (local education provider) shall develop, implement, and annually review improvement plans if the data reported to the department of education pursuant to the safe school reporting requirements shows disproportionate discipline practices at the local education provider. In implementing an improvement plan to address disproportionate discipline practices, each local education provider shall provide to the parents of the students enrolled in the school written notice of the improvement plan and issues identified by the local education provider as giving rise to the need for the plan. The written notice must include the timeline for developing and adopting the improvement plan and the dates, times, and locations of the public meeting to solicit input from parents concerning disproportionate discipline and the contents of the plan before the plan is written and a public hearing to review the plan prior to final adoption. The bill creates the school discipline task force (task force) to study and make recommendations regarding school district discipline policies and practices, state and local discipline reporting requirements, and local engagement.The task force consists of 18 members, including the legislative member who is the chair of the Colorado youth advisory council review committee (review committee); the executive director of the department of early childhood or the executive director's designee; the commissioner of education (commissioner) or the commissioner's designee; representatives of statewide education organizations; and former students who attended Colorado public schools and who have lived experience with the school discipline system. The commissioner is required to call the first meeting of the task force. During the first meeting, the task force is required to elect a member to serve as the chair and develop best practices for the administration of the task force meetings.The task force is required to:
Define "disproportionate discipline";
Review the department of education's (department) plan and progress in standardizing discipline data;
Review the department's plan for creating district profile reports;
Determine whether the department's plan and progress in standardizing discipline data should include reports of alternative disciplinary measures taken prior to a student's suspension or expulsion;
Recommend processes and provide resources for public engagement in a local school district board of education's discussions of discipline data;
Review existing public engagement processes;
Review best practices identified by the department concerning dropout prevention and student re-engagement;
Identify alternative approaches to discipline and address concerns around workforce and other resource shortages in school districts in relation to school discipline practices and reporting; and
Recommend legislative and administrative changes, as necessary, and analyze the costs and time frames required to implement the changes.
The task force is required to submit a final report on or before August 1, 2024. The task force is required to present its findings and recommendations to the review committee during the first meeting of the review committee in 2024.
Current law encourages school districts to consider certain factors before suspending or expelling a student. The bill requires school districts to consider those factors before suspending or expelling a student.
The bill requires school districts to document in a student's record and compile in the safe school report any alternative disciplinary attempts before suspending or expelling a student.The bill makes an appropriation to the department to implement the task force. The bill also makes an appropriation to the legislative department for use by the general assembly for the legislator's per diem and travel reimbursement to participate on the task force.
(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

Statutes affected:
Preamended PA1 (03/23/2023): 22-33-106
Preamended PA2 (04/11/2023): 22-33-106
Preamended PA3 (04/28/2023): 22-33-106
Introduced (01/10/2023): 22-33-106
Engrossed (04/13/2023): 22-33-106
Reengrossed (04/14/2023): 22-33-106
Revised (04/29/2023): 22-33-106
Rerevised (05/01/2023): 22-33-106
Final Act (05/05/2023): 22-33-106