Colorado § 23-3.9-100.2 Legislative declaration

Colorado Statutes

§ 23-3.9-100.2 — Legislative declaration

Colorado § 23-3.9-100.2

Title 23Postsecondary Education

Art.Educator Recruitment and Retention Programs

This text of Colorado § 23-3.9-100.2 (Legislative declaration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 23-3.9-100.2 (2026).

Text

(1)The general assembly finds that:

(a)Colorado suffers from a shortage of teachers and other educators due to various factors affecting the teaching profession, which include but are not limited to declining enrollment and completion of educator preparation programs, low educator compensation and benefits, an insufficient number of educators in certain content areas, and difficulty in filling educator positions in rural or isolated areas of the state;

(b)Pursuant to House Bill 17-1003, enacted in 2017, the department of higher education and the department of education, with input from education and community stakeholders, analyzed teacher and other educator shortages and issued a report including recommendations for addressing these shortages;

(c)As part of their findings,

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(1) The general assembly finds that:

(a) Colorado suffers from a shortage of teachers and other educators due to
various factors affecting the teaching profession, which include but are not limited
to declining enrollment and completion of educator preparation programs, low
educator compensation and benefits, an insufficient number of educators in certain
content areas, and difficulty in filling educator positions in rural or isolated areas of
the state;

(b) Pursuant to House Bill 17-1003, enacted in 2017, the department of higher
education and the department of education, with input from education and
community stakeholders, analyzed teacher and other educator shortages and
issued a report including recommendations for addressing these shortages;

(c) As part of their findings, the department of higher education and the
department of education determined that the state has educator shortages in early
childhood education; science; mathematics; world languages; special education;
and art, music, and drama;

(d) Further, shortages in these content areas are more pronounced in rural
and remote rural areas where school districts and rural schools face additional
challenges, including inadequate teacher compensation, lack of affordable housing,
and an inability to attract new teachers to rural communities; and

(e) The department of higher education and the department of education
found that one strategy for addressing teacher and other educator shortages in
hard-to-fill positions due to teaching content area or geographic location is to offer
loan repayment of educational loans for educators who serve in these hard-to-fill
positions in the state.

(2) Therefore, the general assembly declares that implementing a loan
forgiveness program for educators employed in qualified positions in the state is
necessary to ensure that the needs of students are met in all Colorado public
schools.