§ 22-2-302 — Legislative declaration

Colorado § 22-2-302

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 22: Education
• Art.: Department - Commissioner

Text

(1) The general assembly hereby finds
that:

(a) Pursuant to state statute and rules of the state board, school districts are
required to submit extensive and duplicative data at different times throughout the
year or to different divisions within the department of education;

(b) Reporting requirements are frequently placed in statute or rule and are
not revisited after their initial adoption. Often, these requirements cease over time
to have a relevant use or purpose but are still required to be reported to the
department.

(c) School districts recognize the value of collecting and submitting data
that will be used to track student achievement, to qualify for state funds, or to
support accountability for student achievement or compliance measures but often
find that the staff time required to prepare reports and submit required data under
federal and state statutes and rules takes human and capital resources that could
be better spent on providing student instruction;

(d) The department works to make data reporting productive and meaningful
but faces its own internal challenges in terms of funding, adequate staffing levels,
and the ability to overhaul antiquated data technology systems;

(e) The elementary and secondary education system in Colorado spends
considerable amounts of money maintaining multiple, often out-of-date, computer
systems for data collection and transmission. Due to the lack of a single statewide
data system, data often cannot be accessed, even when acting in compliance with
federal privacy restraints, by others within the department, school districts seeking
comparisons with other districts for best practices, or researchers and foundations
seeking to conduct research on the Colorado public school system and its students.

(2) It is therefore the intent of the general assembly in enacting this part 3 to
achieve the following purposes:

(a) To improve the collection of data by streamlining the submission and
reporting of data;

(b) To create shared goals and shared expectations for data collection and
technology for elementary and secondary education in Colorado;

(c) To require school districts and public schools to submit data that is
relevant to student achievement and will enhance and improve the manner in which
school districts and public schools provide and evaluate student instruction;

(d) To explore the possibility of implementing a single statewide education
data collection system with the purpose of reducing the manpower and cost of
submitting required data to the department; and

(e) To deploy the single statewide education data collection system as a
system of data exchange that is based on automatic file exchanges rather than
manual processes requiring personnel to upload electronic files via messaging, web
uploads, or other file transfer methods requiring human intervention.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2007: Entire part added, p. 1059, � 1, effective May 23.