(1)
Subject to the supervision of the state board, the commissioner has the following
duties:
(a) To advise the state board concerning the current operation and status of
the public schools and upon other educational matters;
(b) To supply the state board with such information as it may require and to
prepare for the board to transmit annually a report accounting to the governor and
the house and senate committees on education for the efficient discharge of all
responsibilities assigned by law or directive to the department, and to issue all
publications of the department circulated in quantity outside the executive branch
in accordance with the provisions of section 24-1-136, C.R.S.;
(c) To prepare and submit to the state board a budget for the department
and to properly execute the approved budget in accordance with appropriations;
(d) To establish and maintain a system of personnel administration within the
department;
(e) To cause all policies, rules, and regulations adopted by the state board to
be duly executed;
(f) To serve as state librarian pursuant to section 24-90-104 (2), C.R.S.;
(g) To visit public schools and communities which most need his personal
attendance for the purpose of stimulating and guiding public sentiment to
education and diffusing by public addresses and personal communication with
parents, school officers, and teachers a knowledge of existing defects of and a
knowledge of desirable improvements in the government, finance, curriculum of,
and instruction in the public schools;
(h) To establish and maintain adequate statistical, academic performance,
safety environment, and financial records of school districts, including records
required by article 11 of this title;
(i) Repealed.
(j) To perform other duties as may be delegated to him by law or by the state
board;
(k) To submit to the governor and the general assembly, not later than the
first day of September of each year, a report which shall discuss educational issues
in Colorado and such other subjects as the commissioner may deem appropriate.
The commissioner shall also submit such fiscal, instructional, academic progress,
and other information as may be required by the state board to reflect the quality of
education in the state. Statistical data by school district regarding drop-out rates,
teacher-pupil ratios, number of courses offered, teacher turnover rates, and reading
and achievement scores will be available upon request.
(l) To prepare a manual setting forth simplified election procedures for use
by the election judges in the district. He shall notify the superintendent of each
district that such a manual is available and that copies will be furnished upon
request and free of charge. When the school election laws have changed, he shall
revise the manual to comply with the then existing laws. Such revisions may be
made by inserts to the manual.
(m) To supervise, manage, and control the Colorado school for the deaf and
the blind at Colorado Springs;
(n) To enter into an interagency agreement with the department of health
care policy and financing and to promulgate such rules and regulations as may be
necessary under the agreement to enable school districts, boards of cooperative
services, and state educational institutions to enter into contracts and to receive
federal matching funds for moneys spent in providing student health services as
provided in section 25.5-5-301 (6) or 25.5-5-318, C.R.S.;
(o) To comply with the duties set forth in article 11 of this title;
(p) To establish and maintain an educator identifier system to assign unique
identifiers to educators employed in a school district or local education agency.
Each educator's identifier must be unique. The identifier must not use any personal
identifying information, such as social security numbers or contact information,
except for alignment purposes in data processing. Any personal identifying
information that is collected must be linked in a secure data location so data sets
can be matched based on the personal identifying information when the identifier is
not included.
(q) (I) To assist the state board in reviewing the content of educator
preparation programs in the state by preparing an annual report on the
effectiveness of educator preparation programs.
(II) For purposes of this subsection (1)(q), the department shall use data
collected from an educator in the educator's first three years of placement as the
educator of record.
(III) To the extent the relevant data is available at the time of the annual
report, the report required pursuant to this subsection (1)(q) must include, but need
not be limited to, the correlation between different educator preparation programs
in the state, including alternative educator preparation programs, and student
academic growth, educator placement, educator mobility and retention, and
educator performance evaluation ratings.
(IV) The department shall make the report prepared pursuant to this
subsection (1)(q) available to the public on the department's website no later than
thirty days after the report's completion. The department shall share the
information with educator preparation programs to inform curriculum and program
improvements.
(r) Repealed.
(s) To facilitate employment first policies and practices by:
(I) Providing input and assistance to the employment first advisory
partnership described in section 8-84-303, C.R.S., in carrying out its duties; and
(II) Presenting the reports and recommendations of the employment first
advisory partnership to the department's legislative committee of reference
pursuant to section 8-84-303 (7), C.R.S.
(t) To annually distribute to each school district and to the state charter
school institute informational materials received from the department of personnel
pursuant to section 24-5-102 relating to federal student loan repayment programs
and student loan forgiveness programs.
(u) (I) To prepare an annual report on the number of pupils enrolled in public
schools in the state based on the pupil enrollments reported to the state board
pursuant to section 22-54-112 (2)(a) for the applicable school year, and the number
of school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, and school
psychologists in the state, licensed by the department pursuant to part 2 of article
60.5 of this title 22, and employed by a school district, board of cooperative
services, charter school, or entity that contracts with any of the above who are
reported as full-time equivalent or part-time employees. The report must state the
number of pupils and licensed and employed school psychologists, school
counselors, school social workers, and school nurses in total for the state and
disaggregated by school district, board of cooperative services, and the state
charter school institute.
(II) The department shall make the report prepared pursuant to this
subsection (1)(u) available to the public on its website no later than thirty days after
its completion each year.
(v) Upon the repeal of part 2 of article 82.9 of this title 22 and in accordance
with section 39-22-104 (3)(p.5)(II), to promptly notify the executive director of the
department of revenue in writing that the healthy school meals for all program is
repealed.
(2) In accordance with section 22-2-107 (1)(c), the commissioner shall
establish requirements enabling residents of this state who are seventeen years of
age or older or who are sixteen years of age and satisfy the requirements of section
22-33-104.7 to successfully complete a high school equivalency examination, as
defined in section 22-33-102 (8.5).
(3) Repealed.
(4) (a) The commissioner shall ensure that the department, subject to
available appropriations, annually allocates money to district charter schools and
institute charter schools to reimburse them for the costs of administering
developmental education placement or assessment tests pursuant to sections 22-30.5-117 and 22-30.5-526 to students enrolled in grades nine through twelve. The
department shall allocate money to offset the costs incurred in administering each
of the test units only once per student while the student is enrolled in grades nine
through twelve.
(b) The general assembly finds that, for purposes of section 17 of article IX
of the state constitution, administering developmental education placement or
assessment tests to students in grades nine through twelve is an accountable
program to meet state academic standards and is a component of accountability
reporting and may therefore receive funding from the state education fund created
in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution.
(5) On and after August 10, 2016, the board of education of a school district
that intends to seek voter approval of bonded indebtedness for the purpose of
constructing a building that the school district may lease to a state institution of
higher education or that intends to lease other school district property to a state
institution of higher education, and that intends, in either situation, to receive in-kind services in lieu of part or all of the lease payments, must submit to the
commissioner a letter of intent to lease property to a state institution of higher
education. The commissioner shall approve the first three letters of intent that are
submitted after August 10, 2016, and shall not approve subsequent submittals until
July 1, 2021, at which point the commissioner may approve the first three letters of
intent submitted after that date. A school district board of education may proceed
with plans to lease property to a state institution of higher education or to seek
voter approval of bonded indebtedness to construct a building for lease to a state
institution of higher education only if the school district's letter of intent is
approved by the commissioner. The provisions of this subsection (5) do not apply to
a building lease between a school district and a state institution of higher education
that exists as of August 10, 2016.
(6) If a school district fails to replace categorical program support funds as
required in section 22-54-107, the commissioner shall withhold from any state
money due to the school district for any reason the unpaid amount of categorical
program support funds recoverable from the school district. The commissioner
shall withhold the state money commencing in the budget year immediately
following the budget year in which the school district fails to pay the recoverable
amount. The commissioner shall assess and recover an interest fee on the unpaid
amount, beginning July 1, at a rate that is equal to the earnings on the treasury
pooled funds for the previous fiscal year; except that the commissioner may waive
accrued interest upon recovery of the unpaid amount.
(7) Repealed.
(8) Notwithstanding any provision of section 22-2-111 to the contrary, the
commissioner shall ensure that the department of education cooperates with the
department of early childhood as provided in section 26.5-1-111 in sharing,
managing, and protecting qualitative and quantitative data needed to measure
longitudinal outcomes of early childhood programs and services.
Source: L. 64: R&RE, p. 535, � 1. C.R.S. 1963: � 123-1-13. L. 69: p. 1022, � 1. L.
75: (1)(l) added, p. 686, � 2, effective July 1. L. 77: (1)(m) added, p. 1090, � 1, effective
July 1. L. 79: (1)(f) amended and (2) added, pp. 774, 992, �� 1, 2, effective July 1. L. 83: (1)(b) and (1)(i) amended, p. 833, � 34, effective July 1. L. 84: (1)(k) R&RE, p. 580, � 1,
effective April 5. L. 96: (1)(b) amended, p. 1234, � 70, effective August 7. L. 97: (1)(n)
added, p. 1138, � 5, effective May 28. L. 98: (1)(o) added, p. 986, � 3, effective July 1. L. 2000: (1)(h) amended, p. 349, � 2, effective April 10. L. 2006: (1)(n) amended, p.
2005, � 62, effective July 1. L. 2007: (1)(i) amended, p. 625, � 1, effective April 26; (3)
added, p. 1065, � 3, effective May 23. L. 2009: (1)(h) amended, (SB 09-163), ch. 293,
p. 1528, � 9, effective May 21. L. 2012: (4) added, (HB 12-1345), ch. 188, p. 730, � 20,
effective May 19. L. 2013: (1)(p) and (1)(q) added, (HB 13-1219), ch. 104, p. 356, � 1,
effective August 7. L. 2014: (2) amended, (SB 14-058), ch. 102, p. 380, � 8, effective
April 7; (1)(r) added, (HB 14-1202), ch. 361, p. 1700, � 2, effective June 6. L. 2016: (6)
added, (HB 16-1422), ch. 351, p. 1431, � 4, effective June 10; (1)(s) added, (SB 16-077),
ch. 360, p. 1506, � 6, effective July 1; (5) added, (SB 16-209), ch. 235, p. 950, � 3,
effective August 10. L. 2018: (1)(q)(III) amended, (HB 18-1379), ch. 250, p. 1541, � 7,
effective May 24. L. 2019: (4) amended, (HB 19-1206), ch. 133, p. 598, � 4, effective
April 25; (1)(t) added, (SB 19-057), ch. 35, p. 113, � 2, effective August 2. L. 2020: (7)
added, (HB 20-1418), ch. 197, p. 957, � 43, effective June 30. L. 2021: (1)(u) added,
(HB 21-1273), ch. 412, p. 2754, � 1, effective July 2. L. 2022: (1)(u)(I) amended, (HB
22-1376), ch. 243, p. 1799, � 2, effective May 26; (8) added, (HB 22-1295), ch. 123, p.
776, � 7, effective July 1. Referred 2022: (1)(v) added, Proposition FF, L. 2022, (HB
22-1414), ch. 509, p. 4289, � 7, effective upon proclamation of the Governor,
December 27, 2022. L. 2023: (1)(q)(I), (1)(q)(II), and (1)(q)(IV) amended, (SB 23-258),
ch. 334, p. 2007, � 4, effective August 7. L. 2025: (4)(a) amended, (SB 25-222), ch.
100, p. 449, � 2, effective April 24; (1)(i) repealed, (SB 25-216), ch. 98, p. 446, � 1,
effective July 1.