(1) The department, with assistance from the office of suicide prevention created pursuant to section 25-1.5-101 (1)(w)(I), the Colorado youth advisory council created pursuant to section 2-2-1302, and the suicide prevention commission created pursuant to section 25-1.5-111, shall create and maintain a resource bank of evidence-based, research-based, and promising program materials and curricula pertaining to mental health, which materials and curricula may be used in elementary and secondary schools in the state. The resource bank and curricula must be youth-friendly, culturally sensitive, and available in both English and Spanish. In creating the resource bank and curricula, the department may provide internet links to resources and materials pertaining to mental health available from other entities that the department finds reliable. Additionally, the department shall solicit input from persons, including youth, within and outside of the mental health profession, including both community and school mental health professionals. Subject to available appropriations, the department shall solicit requests for information and may contract for:

(b) A professional licensee shall complete such ongoing professional development within the period of time for which such professional license is valid. Such professional development may include but need not be limited to in-service education programs, including training in preventing, identifying, and responding to child sexual abuse and assault; behavioral health training that is culturally responsive and trauma- and evidence-informed; and laws and practices relating to the education of students with disabilities in the classroom, including but not limited to child find and inclusive learning environments; college or university credit from an accepted institution of higher education or a community, technical, or local district college; educational travel that meets the requirements specified in subsection (3)(d) of this section; involvement in school reform; service as a mentor teacher for teacher candidates participating in clinical practice, as defined in section 23-78-103; internships; and ongoing professional development training and experiences. The state board of education, by rule, may establish minimum criteria for professional development; except that such criteria shall not:

(1)(a) There is created in the department the behavioral health care professional matching grant program, referred to in this article 96 as the "program", to provide funding to education providers for the following purposes:

(1) In the first and subsequent years of operation of the pilot program, each pilot school shall employ or contract with additional school mental health professionals so that each of grades one through five and the kindergarten program in each pilot school has a school mental health professional dedicated to each grade and the kindergarten program. If a single grade or the kindergarten program has more than two hundred fifty students, additional school mental health professionals must be added to the grade or kindergarten program to maintain a ratio of approximately one school mental health professional per two hundred fifty students, as determined by the pilot school. A small pilot school shall maintain a ratio of approximately one school mental health professional per two hundred fifty students, as determined by the pilot school. At least one of the school mental health professionals at each pilot school must be a school social worker.

(2) The goal of the pilot program is for a school mental health professional to develop an ongoing relationship with pilot school students and to follow those students, to the extent possible, as the students advance through the grades at the pilot school. This will allow the school mental health professional to understand the needs of the students and their families over time and to help address those needs over time, if necessary. To achieve this goal, school mental health professionals may be assigned to a cohort of students by grade or, in a smaller school, by multiple grades. School mental health professionals in each pilot school shall work as a team to address the academic and social-emotional needs of the pilot school's students and to create a safe and positive school learning environment through additional behavioral health supports.

(3) For purposes of implementing this pilot program, the general assembly shall appropriate to the department for distribution to the pilot schools, or to the governing body for the pilot school, the amount of money necessary for the pilot schools to employ or contract with the number of additional school mental health professionals necessary to implement the pilot program, as described in subsection (1) of this section. Throughout the duration of the pilot program, the pilot school must employ or contract with, at the pilot school's expense, the same number of school mental health professionals employed by or contracted with the pilot school during the 2019-20 school year, so that the appropriation to the pilot school for the pilot program supplements, but does not supplant, the pilot school's existing expenditures for school mental health professional positions prior to the operation of the pilot program.

(4)(a) In implementing the pilot program, the school mental health professionals shall work as a team, with each professional providing services to students and offering training and resources to school faculty and administrators that are authorized under the school mental health professional's special services license and endorsement.

1.00 Statement of Basis and Purpose.

The School Health Professional Grant Program, sections 22-96-101 through 22-96-105, C.R.S., requires the State Board of Education to promulgate rules for the implementation of the program, including but not limited to: the timeline for submitting applications to the Department; the form of the grant application and any information in addition to that specified in section 22-96-104 (2), C.R.S. to be included in the application; any criteria for awarding grants in addition to those specified in section 22-96-104 (3), C.R.S.; and any information to be included in the Department's program report in addition to that required in section 22-96-105, C.R.S. [...]

2.01 Implementation Procedures.