Senate Education Committee Passes Senator Story’s Bill to Regulate Online Schools
March 8, 2019
| Denver, CO – The Senate Education Committee recently voted 3-to-2 to advance SB19-129 , a bill sponsored by Senator Tammy Story that would require online schools to collect and report data to the online division within the Department of Education. The bill now moves to the Committee of the Whole for consideration. “As more students enroll in non-traditional schools, we need to level the playing field – and that means holding schools accountable,” said Senator Story. “This bill is about ensuring that every student in Colorado, regardless of the format in which they are educated, gets the best education possible and has a fair shot at success.” SB19-129 would require the online division of the Department of Education to collect information biannually concerning students who withdraw from enrollment in an online school, including whether that student enrolls in another school and whether they complete a high school equivalency examination. The Department of Education would summarize this information and then present it to the State Board of Education and the House and Senate Education Committees. Under existing law, an online school is subject to the same accountability requirements as other public schools. The bill states that if an online school is on performance watch and changes authorizers, the online school remains on performance watch. If an online school is closed because of actions taken as a result of accountability, the online school must apply for new certification before it can operate again either as the original online school or as a successor school, regardless of whether the online school changes authorizers. To learn more about SB19-129, please visit https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb19-129. |
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