Senate Education [Mar 25, 2026]

Ms. Kurtz-Falem, please call the roll. Senator Sprite?

Frizzell?

Kip?

Rich?

Snyder?

Marchman?

Mr. Chair?

Will you be doing this yourself today? Going solo.

Oh, I said okay. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. House Bill 1259 is a technical cleanup bill that strengthens Colorado's early childhood system by improving clarity, stability, and coordination across existing programs. This bill does not create any new programs or mandates. Instead, it ensures that the systems we've already invested in are working effectively for families, providers, and communities. First, this bill protects access to family, friend, and neighbor care. That's so important. So many of our kiddos get service through our FFN. It removes a pending repeal of licensing exemptions for these caregivers who are a critical part of our child care landscape, especially in rural communities, and for families who need flexible or culturally responsive care. By maintaining these options, we're supporting real-world needs of Colorado families. Second, the bill provides payment and reimbursement processes for providers. It allows for more timely payments, including in situations where eligibility determinations are still being finalized. This helps prevent providers from experiencing financial strain due to administrative delays and supports the overall stability of the child care workforce. The third thing the bill does is strengthen coordination with our early childhood system. It takes advisory structures, it updates advisory structures to ensure we're incorporating expertise in areas like behavioral health and family economic stability. This reflects our commitment to a more holistic, whole child approach. Finally, the bill includes technical clarifications to program rules and funding structures, including those related to universal preschool and other early childhood programs. These updates help ensure more consistent implementation across the state and reduce confusion for both families and providers. Ultimately, this bill is about making sure Colorado's early childhood system is clear, functional, and responsive to the people it serves. It supports families by preserving access to diverse care options, supports providers through more reliable systems, and helps the state better deliver on its existing commitments. It's a thoughtful, stakeholder-informed bill that reflects feedback from across the early childhood community. I respectfully ask for your support of House Bill 1259. Happy to answer any questions.

Yes, thank you. My name is Tim DeRocher. I am the legislative policy and legal advisor for the department. So I just wanted to testify on behalf of the department in support of this bill and would also like to thank the sponsors for leading this legislation. So as you've heard a little bit about, this bill makes various technical cleanups to Title 26.5, which is the statute that governs the Department of Early Childhood. And namely what it does is fixes statutory ambiguities and conflicts and inefficiencies across our programs. And this allows the department to more effectively promote safety, quality, access, and operational efficiencies. Some of the changes to highlight for our CCAP program, our Child Care Assistance Program, it aligns state law to existing state law as well as our federal rules to cement current practices for our universal preschool program ensures that our data privacy provisions cover all children in the program it also clarifies the existing language regarding how the non IEP three-year-old program works for our licensing it codifies best practices by ensuring that that the definition of institutional abuse also matches the substantive language in state law regarding that definition. And then lastly, in our community and family services, DCFS in our department, it broadens the pool of vendors eligible for our social emotional learning grants. And really what I wanted to highlight is that all the changes in this bill do not impact the services that children and families receive. We are really, now that we've been around for a few years, we see where there's, as I said conflicts between existing state law and are just cleaning those up to represent the best practices that happen. And so that will allow us to provide these services more efficiently and effectively while fixing those latent ambiguities in state law. I appreciate the time and I'm happy to take any questions.

Yes. So for the Early Childhood Leadership Commission, economic mobility is something that the commission already looks at. For background here, our ECLC serves as our state advisory council, which is required under the Federal Head Start Act. And so the family economic mobility is something that they already look at and do and is implied under that Head Start Act responsibilities. And so this really just codifies that in our state law to ensure that the ECLC has that purview in accordance with the Head Start Act.

Yes. So what's really wonderful about the ECLC is that it doesn't just operate in a vacuum or in a silo, and it looks across the early childhood to looking at not just individual programs, but also the circumstances of families. And so the economic mobility is looking at how families can really, whether it's through jobs or training or education, look at how to better skills so that they can move up the economic ladder, for lack of a better term. And so that's what this looks at, is not just programs or services that CDC offers, but ones that other states do, maybe local governments, nonprofits. And so that's what it's really about, is connecting families with those services that will help them increase their economic standing.

I do. Mr. Chair, I move L-008.

I can. In this bill, I'm going to go look at it so I can see it. On page 9 at the bottom, 6.5, one of the things it says is it says the General Assembly may appropriate money for the purposes of subsection 6 of this section from the state education fund created in section 17 of the state constitution. Long story short, there was a bill in 22-1295. That is the language that this is. We had another bill in 23-216 that changed it, and now we're just changing it back to the original 22-12-95. And what it's saying is we're just going to hold off on this, on that section, until July 1 of 2027. We did this partially because the long bill's not done. This does have to do with how the long bill will be done. And so we don't want to constrain this year's long bill by saying that by keeping this provision in place for this year.

No, this isn't from the School Finance Act. this is just the inflationary portion of the increase. And so this is just how it was before we changed it in 2023. We can probably ask the CDE guy to come back if you've got more questions on that.

Thank you guys for hearing this bill today, this cleanup bill. And, yeah, I appreciate it, and I hope you can support the bill. Thank you.

Yes. And yes, I will. And we will definitely talk, Senator Bright. I move House Bill 1259 as amended to the Committee of the Whole.

Senators Bright? No. Frizzell? Respectfully no. Kip? Yes. Rich? No. Snyder? Aye. Marchman? Aye. Mr. Chair? Aye. And that passes 4-3 and you'll be off to the committee to the whole. Thanks committee. Might as well stay right there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1050 is a real narrow measured approach to realign kindergarten planning with data. This bill just aligns individual readiness plans called IRPs with the results of the kindergarten readiness assessment. If a student's proficient in all six domains, then the bill removes the requirement to create a plan for that student. We have found that that is 85% of the students. So most students are, in fact, in a good spot and would not need to have an IRP. So our goal is really to maximize teacher time for instruction, not so much the paperwork. And so that's really about focusing required plans on the students who need them, reducing paperwork when the data shows the student's already on track. We have one amendment that my co-prime will talk about, and looking forward to hearing the testimony today. Thank you, committee.

Thank you, committee. And I'm really excited to bring this bill before you today. It's really, you know, in many ways, this bill strengthens that partnership between parents and teachers that is so, so important. and aims to ensure that kindergarten teachers are able to spend time doing what they do best as opposed to statutory work that kids may not actually need. So this is just kind of a common sense bill that aligns data with student planning and instruction. This individualized readiness plan was originally created in 2008, and we've created other tools since then that help support early learners, including funding full-day kindergarten and UPK. We have lots of assessment tools and dyslexia screeners. This bill is just updating a tool that was created in 2008 to meet our kids' and teachers' needs in 2026. Thank you.

Thank you. My name is Claudia Sanchez, and I'm going to read a testimony of someone that's supposed to be here, but she couldn't be. Her name is Sol Angel. Hola, mi nombre es Sol Angel Ramos. Vivo en Westminster, Colorado.

I work on a organization without fines of lucro, supporting families of the southernmost of Denver. I'm a mom and I'm a migrant. Today I'm here to ask a vote no to the proposal HB261050, because I have a child of 6 years old that needed and benefited from the special support of Head Start, which I'm here to ask. Obviously, we don't have the resources to make a private evaluation. After several months of study, analyzing its evolution and response to different educational strategies, they realized that extra support was necessary and was required to receive special programs from the school. If this had been optional and he had no had a individual plan, maybe my son had received the appropriate support. Typically, for the teachers, their difficulties of language were considered normal or expected by a Hispanic child that was learning a different language from his home. However, thanks to the teachers, they had to provide this complete evaluation, he received a plan of learning Thank you.

Thank you so much. My name is Alexis and I am a community organizer and I will also be using interpretation to read on behalf of a community leader. for students in preschool and kindergarten. The plans exist for one reason. Many times families don't have control when our children need support in their different needs in the early education for developing the physical, emotional, social and cognitive of a child's environment for their growth. The early early education is crucial because this period develops 90% of the infant's brain in the first years, which favores future success academic and personal success. The presence and compression of the needs of each child has the potential to change the course of their education. The early evaluation is useful but they don't tell the history. Muchos factores como el idioma en el hogar, la madurez emocional, la cultura y el exceso previo a la educación temprana pueden influir y a pesar de que los niños muestren que están bien, aún se necesita apoyo adicional y un plan de aprendizaje para saber que el niño sigue avanzando y desarrollándose. is especially important when we want to demonstrate our commitment with the educational equidad. The option plans can affect the way disproportionately to students who are learning English. It is also important to the inconsistencies between districts when their implementation is optional. is optional. No invertir en la educación inicial de los niños vulnerables a través de estos programas de pre-k y kindergarten representa una amenaza profunda para el futuro de nuestra economía sin inversiones adecuadas en servicios educacionales. Mientras no sacrificamos para equilibrar el presupuesto debemos reconocer que estos programas de primera infancia son inversiones rentables fundamentales para el crecimiento económico continuo al estado quizás se sienta que esta iniciativa está pensada para liberar la carga administrativa de los maestros pero a largo plazo estamos sacrificando la educación y el bienestar de los niños de que se verán afectados esto será una carga mayor para maestros y familias y sobre todo para los niños en el futuro in vez de simplificar el apoyo, brindar más apoyo a los educadores hoy. Gracias por su tiempo y espero contar en su voto a favor a HB261050.

need to work more with the little ones, among other great benefits. I believe that if the children do not receive the academic support that they need from the little ones, try to help them to succeed when they are in elementary school and are below their degree would be stressful for the student and double work for the teachers, without any doubt. Sin dejar de lado que las familias también necesitan hablar con los maestros de sus hijos, pero en ocasiones esto es difícil, porque los dos padres de familia necesitamos trabajar. Si este plan lo hacen opcional, muchos de los padres dejaremos de tener ese contacto directo con los maestros de nuestros hijos y los niños tendrán menos probabilidad de estar en el nivel escolar que deben estar, ya que el plan individualizado es para darle al estudiante and their family, the security that the school and the district will do what is in their hands for the children's success, not only in the school, but in their future. The schools must facilitate the learning process of each child, not all the contrary. That's why I ask you to vote no to the law HB 261050. Thanks for the time that you take in listening to the community's opinion. Thank you very much.

Gracias. Hola, buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Olivia Hernandez. Y agradezco la oportunidad de compartir mi opinión. Estoy aquí para pedir un voto no a la iniciativa que haría opcional el plan individualizado de of preparation for students of preschool and kindergarten. These plans are key to that each child is developing successfully in the beginning of their educational journey, helping them to strengthen their strengths and at the same time, fulfilling all their needs. This transition is a critical moment in the life of children, in which they can experience great changes in their development or sometimes, affected by the insecurity of the insecurity in which many families are atravies. What is reflected in the school? It is very important to the vulnerability of the children and their families and it is important to pay attention to keep the language in the home and their culture, as well as the exit transition from home to school. Cualquier desinformación sobre las necesidades de un niño puede tener un impacto a largo plazo. Las evaluaciones y planes individualizados de aprendizaje tienen como objetivo identificar y responder a cualquier necesidad que pueda surgir, no tan solo académica, pero también socioemocional. I am a mother and provider of infant care care in home and my experience with one of my children is that thanks to the appropriate support and a individual plan, since I was little, I study at the university. Algunos niños que estuvieron o están a mi cuidado se han beneficiado de este plan de aprendizaje individualizado y si este plan fuera opcional, lo más probable es que no reciban el apoyo que necesitan. It is important to remember that each student has the same value. For all these reasons, I ask you, with respect you deserve, vote no HB261050 and keep Colorado's commitment with a solid and equitable education for the good-of-the-life of all children. Thank you for your time.

Can you hear me? Yes. All right. Thank you. And thank you chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Sarah Hunt. I serve as the president of the Charter Advocacy Coalition. We represent public charter schools and students across Colorado and in support of the 1993 Charter Schools Act. I'm grateful to be here at the table with a broad bipartisan group of partners working on behalf of Colorado students. And I'm here today in support of this bill. The bill is a straightforward common sense reform. It reduces unnecessary administrative burden, improves operational efficiency, and better aligns educator time and resources with actual student needs. The current law requires readiness plans for all preschool and kindergarten students, regardless of proficiency. Bill 1050 makes those plans optional for students already meeting benchmarks while preserving them for those who truly need support, treating a proficient reader differently than a struggling one. Every minute of a teacher's day is finite and valuable. Educators are balancing instruction and assessment, planning, parent communication, and student support. Requiring them to produce formalized plans for students who are already on track is duplicative work that does not improve outcomes, and it comes at a real cost, time that could be spent helping students who are struggling. Teachers are professionals. They are trained to make informed judgments about how to allocate their time and resources to maximize student outcomes. They are closest to the classroom, closest to the data, and closest to the students themselves. Policymakers at the Capitol, however well-intentioned, are necessarily more removed from those day-to-day realities. This bill reflects trust in educators' professional judgment rather than a one-size-fits-all mandate. It also aligns with Colorado's long-standing commitment to local control. Decisions about how best to serve students are most effective when made at the local level by educators and school leaders who understand their communities. Bill 1050 restores appropriate discretion to schools and districts to determine when an individualized readiness plan is necessary, rather than imposing a universal requirement that treats every student the same regardless of demonstrated proficiency. If we are serious about closing achievement gaps, we need to be equally serious about how we allocate educator time. By making readiness plans optional for students who have already demonstrated proficiency, HB 1050 allows educators to concentrate their efforts where they are most needed on students showing early indicators of risk, learning gaps, or reading challenges. This is a practical, targeted reform that respects educators' time, trusts their expertise, and reinforces local control while prioritizing student needs. And I respectfully urge the committee to support 1050. Thank you very much. And with my last eight seconds, I'm just going to say thank you again for making our virtual testimony an option today.

My name is Fiona Boomer, and I'm the Executive Director of the American Federation of Teachers Colorado. AFT Colorado represents thousands of educators, paraprofessionals, and school staff across the state who are deeply committed to ensuring every child gets the support they need to succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. We are here in support of House Bill 1050. Educators believe in individualized support. We believe in early intervention and we believe in meeting students where they are. But we also believe that policies must be targeted, effective, and sustainable, both for students and for the educators charged with implementing them. Under current law, schools are required to develop individualized readiness plans for every preschool and kindergarten student, regardless of need. 1050 introduces a common sense adjustment. It allows local education providers to focus these plans on students who are not yet meeting proficiency, while making them optional for students who demonstrate readiness through existing assessments. This matters for our members. This bill meaningfully reduces unnecessary administrative workload for our educators. Teachers are facing unprecedented demands on their time, growing class sizes, staff shortages, increased behavioral needs, and rising documentation requirements. creating and maintaining readiness plans for students who are already demonstrating proficiency, diverts time and attention away from students who truly need targeted interventions. This bill allows educators to spend time, spend less time on duplicative work and more time doing what actually moves the needle, working directly with students and families. This bill preserves and strengthens support for students who need them most. 1050 does not eliminate assessments. It does not eliminate readiness plans where they are needed. Instead, it uses existing required assessments to identify students who are already meeting benchmarks and allows educators to concentrate resources on students who are not yet proficient. This is a smart early literacy policy and it aligns with what educators see every day in classrooms. Importantly, this bill also respects local flexibility. Districts and schools can still provide readiness plans universally if that works for their community, but they are no longer forced into a one-size-fits-all approach that strains capacity without improving outcomes. Educators want accountability, but we also want policies that recognize professional judgment and the realities of today's classrooms. 1050 strikes that balance. It maintains strong expectations for early literacy and readiness while acknowledging that time is a finite resource and it should be spent where it has the greatest impact. On behalf of the American Federation of Teachers Colorado and the educators we represent, we urge you to support this bill. This is a thoughtful, targeted step toward reducing educator burnout while ensuring students receive the interventions they need to thrive. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a comment and a question. Would that be allowed? That's fine. I just want to say that was one of the most dramatic and passionate interpretations I've ever experienced. But I do have a question for Ms. Hunt or Ms. Boomer, both. And I appreciate, Ms. Boomer, that this is an opt-in for the districts. If they still want to universally test, they'll still have that option. But will every parent have the option of requesting a test for their child, even if they've exceeded the standards and it's not required? Ms. Hunt, if you would like to, Ms. Boomer, start with Ms. Hunt.

Sure. I can just add that to your specific question, my understanding is yes, a parent can request that testing. A parent can request really any testing working alongside their teacher. They have every right to do that. Nothing in this bill would change that. Thank you.

that answers your exact question. It says a parent or legal guardian may request that the student receives an individual readiness plan. And to also make it clear as a question, I think from what I heard from Senator Snyder,

but they were all given an assessment no matter what. Is that correct, Senator Frizzell?

Every student receives the assessment.

Senator Marchman.

I move L-008.

Senator Frizzell. I'd be happy to. Thank you. Amendment L-008 clarifies current requirements to disclose kindergarten readiness assessments and the individualized readiness plan results to the parents. And so that's a really important piece of this particular bill. When I spoke at the very beginning, you know, one of the intents is this is really intended to create a better conversation between teachers and students, but more importantly teachers and parents, so that the parents actually understand exactly where their kids are in the scope of things. And the other thing, and this was, I think, kind of a novel and an important thing that came out of stakeholding late last night, as it turned out. The second part of the amendment creates a requirement and does not bring a fiscal note, because this information is already being communicated to the Colorado Department of Education. and they aggregate the KRA data on the CAP, I want to say CAP for Kids, report, CAP for K, report. They aggregate it statewide, but they don't aggregate it by district. And so this particular part of the amendment actually puts in that requirement. They already have the information. They say that the Department of Education says that they can do this without a fiscal note. So I think that's just, I know. I know. It's a great thing, and I really appreciate their help with this, because I think it really provides better information to parents if they can see this data on a district level, because the state's just big. So that's L008, and I would love your eye vote. I say buy a lottery ticket online. It's your lucky day. I got you there.

All right. So we, as I mentioned, we worked with a lot of stakeholders throughout this bill when it was in the House and as it came over to the Senate. And I really feel great about the language that we have for this particular policy. It's been well crafted and everybody kind of came to the table and I'm very grateful for that. So, you know, this is a good bill. It ensures, and I feel really terrible in listening to some of the testimony because I think that there's some significant misunderstanding about what this bill does. This bill does not, it does not take assessments or kindergarten IRPs away. it, it just makes sure that these kids that need the extra attention get it, rather than teachers just having to kind of create plans for students that really already meet or exceed expectation. So, but if your kiddo meets or exceeds expectations and you want a plan, you can still have a plan. So, again, I think that this is a really important bill, and it's a common sense bill that would will really benefit our teachers. So I ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Committee, for hearing this. I want to also thank everyone who took the time to come today to testify, either in support or in opposition. I just want to hit home again. We're not getting rid of that assessment. We're not getting rid of the plans. I heard from a woman who said my son ended up needing extra services, And I want to assure that mother that under our bill, her child would have been under an IRP because he would have not scored in a proficient way. I really enjoyed hearing the whole concept of trusting educators' professional judgment. I've done a lot of gifted assessments in my day and we only set up a learning plan for an advanced learning plan for students who are identified as gifted and the same is true for those who need some extra scaffolding and so that's what this is also just want to say thank you for stakeholders for stakeholders I really appreciate both my coalition as well as my co-prime because conversations have had that I haven't been a part of, and it just makes our bill stronger. The part that I like the most that we just added is increasing that parental disclosure language so that all parents are engaged regardless. So with that, I will just say thank you for listening, and I hope you will support the bill. Thank you.

Yeah, and I appreciate your comments, Senator Bright. I really do. I just want to say I think this is where we have lapsed in not allowing our teachers to use their professional judgment because they are working with these kiddos every day, and they are constantly, I think, reassessing them and making sure. And so I am pleased to do this because, you know, I've been telling people the same thing in, frankly, the small business space and the education space for the last year. It's like, tell me what we're doing to remove some of the burden from you so that you have time to do the things that matter, right? I mean, it's like me. If I spent the same amount of time on every single one of my bills, I would have some bills that were underworked and some bills that were overworked. And that's just the way it is. And some kids need more attention and some kids need less attention. But I think the teachers are doing this every single day and assessing and reassessing and doing what they need for the kiddos. So I am pleased that we can do something in this space to specifically take something off the table for teachers that allows them more time to do the things that they need to help the kids that most need to be helped. So thank you for bringing this bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members. Thank you for listening to us today. I move House Bill 1050 as amended to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.

Ms. Chris-Faylor, you take the poll. Senators Bright?

Rizal?

Kip?

Rich?

Snyder?

Marchman?

Mr. Chair?