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HB 25-1167

Alternative Education Campuses

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Jennifer Bacon and 19 co-sponsors

The bill strengthens funding access, eligibility rules, and reporting for Colorado alternative education campuses to better serve high‑risk students and track enrollment trends.

Governor Signed
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Bill Summary · HB 25-1167

HB 25-1167 — Alternative Education Campuses

Status: Governor signed (May 24, 2025). Effective: August 6, 2025 (assuming no referendum). Introduced: Feb 3, 2025. Primary sponsors: Reps. Alex Valdez and Matthew Martinez; Sen. Cathy Kipp.

Purpose / Intent

The bill makes multiple statutory changes to support Colorado’s alternative education campuses (AECs) — public schools that serve high‑risk or special‑needs students using non‑traditional instruction — by (1) improving access to state grant funding, (2) adjusting eligibility rules to reflect enrollment volatility and students’ ages, and (3) requiring annual state reporting to better understand AEC enrollment dynamics.

Key provisions

  • Grants priority: When administering state education grants under Title 22, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) must allocate priority points to eligible AECs that meet grant requirements.
  • Age expansion for certain students: The definition of “high‑risk student” is amended so a parent or pregnant student up to age 21 (previously under 20) qualifies as high‑risk for AEC purposes.
  • Count‑day exception for older students: An AEC may include a high‑risk student who is 21 or younger on the pupil enrollment count day if that student has sufficient credits to be eligible for a diploma by the end of the same school year.
  • Short‑term designation flexibility: An AEC with fewer than 250 students will not lose its AEC designation if it met the 90% high‑risk threshold one year, fell below that threshold by no more than three students the next year, and then returned to the 90% threshold the following year.
  • Annual CDE report: Beginning September 2025 and each September thereafter, CDE must prepare and post a report on AEC enrollment trends, student demographics, and student mobility. Required elements include year‑round enrollment fluctuations (beyond the October count), demographic breakdowns (age, race/ethnicity, multilingual learners, special education status), and data on transfers into and out of AECs.

Statutory location: Amends Colorado Revised Statutes § 22‑7‑604.5.

Fiscal and operational impact

  • Appropriation: $9,613 General Fund for FY 2025‑26 to the Department of Education, providing 0.1 FTE (School Quality and Support) to produce the required report and related work. This appropriation is included in the enacted act.
  • Ongoing cost estimate: Legislative Council Staff estimated ongoing annual costs of approximately $11,749 (including centrally appropriated costs) to CDE in revised/final fiscal notes.
  • School finance: If AECs serve additional students through age 21, pupil counts (and thus state share through school finance) may increase; any such increase is expected to be minimal. If more AECs qualify for grants under the priority rule, local revenue and expenditures for those schools could increase.

Who is affected

  • Alternative education campuses (currently 93 designated AECs in 2024–25), their students (especially older high‑risk students, parents, and pregnant students), school districts, the Colorado Department of Education, and state grant programs under Title 22.

Timeline / Implementation

  • Annual report due: first by September 2025 and each September thereafter.
  • Governor signed: May 24, 2025. Effective date: Aug 6, 2025 (if no referendum petition is filed).

Legislative history (selected)

  • Passed House and Senate with amendments through April 2025; enrolled and sent to Governor May 13, 2025; signed May 24, 2025.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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