DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is set to sign 11 more bills into law on Tuesday.
It’s the latest ceremony in a bill-signing frenzy the governor has undertaken in recent weeks. Another 10 will be signed on Wednesday, one will be signed on Thursday and three will be signed on Friday.
The Colorado legislature introduced some 721 bills during the 2018 legislative session. About 60 percent of those bills (432) passed out of both chambers.
One of the bills being signed Tuesday stems from a Contact7 Investigates series called “Parents in the Dark.” Contact7 Chief Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski was asked to testify in front of lawmakers about that series, which exposed numerous instances where school districts failed to notify parents when a current or former employee was charged with a felony, including sexual assault against a student.
House Bill 18-1269 places new requirements on school districts when it comes to notifying parents. The bill mandates that schools are to disclose the information to parents within 48 hours of the employee’s preliminary hearing.
Under the measure, the school district must notify parents about the charges if that employee had contact with students within the past year in and faces charges for things like felony child abuse, a crime of violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, indecent exposure, or a felony drug offense.
The bill specifies how the school districts should notify parents and the information they need to provide them with, including the employee’s name, position, length of employment and the alleged offense.
The signing ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday. The bills that will be signed are: HB 18-1344, SB 18-108, SB 18-233, SB 18-150, SB 18-205, SB 18-266, HB 18-1285, HB 18-1269, SB 18-013, HB 18-1128.
