Colorado School Discipline Laws & Regulations: Parental Notification

Discipline Compendium

Colorado School Discipline Laws & Regulations: Parental Notification

Category: Monitoring and Accountability
Subcategory: Parental Notification
State: Colorado

The state or jurisdiction(s) you selected for this subcategory are shown below, followed by the laws and regulations. To add or change states, use the Back button and resubmit your search request.

To view a state profile showing school discipline laws and regulations in all subcategories for a given state, click on the state name.

LAWS

22-32-109.1. Board of education–specific powers and duties–safe school plan–conduct and discipline code–safe school reporting requirements–school response framework–school resource officers–definitions.

(2) Safe school plan. In order to provide a learning environment that is safe, conducive to the learning process, and free from unnecessary disruption, each school district board of education or institute charter school board for a charter school authorized by the charter school institute shall, following consultation with the school district accountability committee and school accountability committees, parents, teachers, administrators, students, student councils where available, and, where appropriate, the community at large, adopt and implement a safe school plan, or review and revise, as necessary in response to any relevant data collected by the school district, any existing plans or policies already in effect. In addition to the aforementioned parties, each school district board of education, in adopting and implementing its safe school plan, may consult with victims' advocacy organizations, school psychologists, local law enforcement, and community partners. The plan, at a minimum, must include the following:

(a) Conduct and discipline code.

(I) A concisely written conduct and discipline code that must be enforced uniformly, fairly, and consistently for all students. Copies of the code shall be provided to each student upon enrollment at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and be posted or kept on file at each public school in the school district. The school district shall take reasonable measures to ensure that each student of each public school in the school district is familiar with the code. The code must include, but need not be limited to:

(B) General policies and procedures for dealing with students who cause a disruption on school grounds, in a school vehicle, or at a school activity or sanctioned event, including a specific policy allowing a teacher to remove a disruptive student from his or her classroom. The policy shall state that, upon the third such removal from a teacher's class, the teacher may remove the disruptive student from the teacher's class for the remainder of the term of the class; except that a disruptive student shall not be removed from a teacher's class for the remainder of the term of the class unless the principal of the student's school or his or her designee has developed and implemented a behavior plan for the student. A behavior plan may be developed after the first such removal from class and shall be developed after the second removal from class. The general policies and procedures shall include a due process procedure, which at a minimum shall require that, as soon as possible after a removal, the teacher or the school principal shall contact the parent or legal guardian of the student to request his or her attendance at a student-teacher conference regarding the removal. Any policy or procedure adopted shall comply with applicable federal and state laws, including but not limited to laws regarding students with disabilities.

22-33-105. Suspension, expulsion, and denial of admission.

(3)(a) If a pupil is suspended pursuant to subsection (2) of this section, the suspending authority shall immediately notify the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of the pupil that the pupil has been suspended and of the grounds for the suspension, the period of the suspension, and the time and place for the parent, guardian, or legal custodian to meet with the suspending authority to review the suspension.

(6) When a pupil is expelled by a school district, the pupil's parent, guardian, or legal custodian is responsible for seeing that the pupil complies with the provisions of this article during the period of expulsion.

22-33-106. Grounds for suspension, expulsion, and denial of admission.

(1) The following may be grounds for suspension or expulsion of a child from a public school during a school year:

(c.5)(I) Declaration as a habitually disruptive student.

(II) For purposes of this paragraph (c.5), "habitually disruptive student" means a child who has caused a material and substantial disruption on school grounds, in a school vehicle, or at a school activity or sanctioned event three or more times during the course of a school year. Any student who is enrolled in a public school may be subject to being declared a habitually disruptive student.

(III) The student and the parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian shall have been notified in writing of each disruption counted toward declaring the student as habitually disruptive pursuant to this paragraph (c.5), and the student and parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian shall have been notified in writing and by telephone or other means at the home or the place of employment of the parent or legal guardian of the definition of "habitually disruptive student".

22-33-107. Enforcement of compulsory school attendance–definitions.

(1) The board of education of each school district shall designate one or more of the employees of the district to act as attendance officer for the district. It is the attendance officer's duty in appropriate cases to counsel with students and parents and investigate the causes of nonattendance and report to the local board of education so as to enforce the provisions of this article which relate to compulsory attendance.

(2) The commissioner of education shall designate an employee of the department of education whose duty it is to assist the individual school districts and to supervise the enforcement of compulsory school attendance for the entire state.

(3)(a) As used in this subsection (3):

(II) "Local community services group" means the local juvenile services planning committee created pursuant to section 19-2-211, C.R.S., the local collaborative management group created by a memorandum of understanding entered into pursuant to section 24-1.9-102, C.R.S., or another local group of public agencies that collaborate with the school district to identify and provide support services for students.

(b) The board of education of each school district shall adopt and implement policies and procedures concerning elementary and secondary school attendance, including but not limited to policies and procedures to work with children who are habitually truant. The policies and procedures must include provisions for the development of a plan. The plan must be developed with the goal of assisting the child to remain in school and, when practicable, with the full participation of the child's parent, guardian, or legal custodian. Appropriate school personnel shall make all reasonable efforts to meet with the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of the child to review and evaluate the reasons for the child's truancy. The appropriate school personnel are encouraged to work with the local community services group to develop the plan. The plan must be in compliance with section 22-33-108 (7) and include appropriate sanctions other than placement in a juvenile detention facility for a child who is habitually truant and who has refused to comply with the plan. The policies and procedures may also include but need not be limited to the following:

(I.5) Procedures to monitor the attendance of each child enrolled in the school district to identify each child who has a significant number of unexcused absences and to work with the local community services group and the child's parent to identify and address the likely issues underlying the child's truancy, including any nonacademic issues;

(II) Annually at the beginning of the school year and upon any enrollment during the school year, notifying the parent of each child enrolled in the public schools in writing of such parent's obligations pursuant to section 22-33-104 (5) and requesting that the parent acknowledge in writing awareness of such obligations;

(III) Annually at the beginning of the school year and upon any enrollment during the school year, obtaining from the parent of each child a telephone number or other means of contacting such parent during the school day; and

(IV) Establishing a system of monitoring individual unexcused absences of children which shall provide that, whenever a child who is enrolled in a public school fails to report to school on a regularly scheduled school day and school personnel have received no indication that the child's parent is aware of the child's absence, school personnel or volunteers under the direction of school personnel shall make a reasonable effort to notify by telephone such parent. Any person who, in good faith, gives or fails to give notice pursuant to this subparagraph (IV) shall be immune from any liability, civil or criminal, which might otherwise be incurred or imposed and shall have the same immunity with respect to any judicial proceeding which results from such notice or failure to give such notice.

(4) On or before September 15, 2022, and on or before September 15 each year thereafter, the board of education of each school district shall report to the department of education the students’ individual attendance information, including total days attended, total days excused, total days unexcused, total possible attendance days, and those who are habitually truant, as defined in section 22-33-102 (3.5), for the preceding academic year. The department shall post the aggregated information for each school district on its website for the public to access and may post additional information reported by school districts related to truancy.

(5) The department of education may post on its website information concerning effective, research-based, truancy- and dropout-prevention programs for the benefit of school districts.

22-33-108. Judicial proceedings.

(5)(a) It is the intent of the general assembly that, in enforcing the compulsory school attendance requirements of this article, a school district shall employ best practices and research-based strategies to minimize the need for court action and the risk that a court will issue detention orders against a child or parent.

(b) A school district shall initiate court proceedings to compel a child and the child's parent to comply with the attendance requirements specified in this article but only as a last-resort approach to address the child's truancy and only if a child continues to be habitually truant after school or school district personnel have created and implemented a plan pursuant to section 22-33-107 (3) to improve the child's school attendance.

(c) Before initiating court proceedings to compel compliance with the attendance requirements specified in this article, the school district shall give the child and the child's parent written notice that the school district will initiate proceedings if the child does not comply with the attendance requirements of this article. The school district may combine the notice and summons. If combined, the petition must state the date on which the school district will initiate proceedings, which date must not be less than five days after the date of the notice and summons. The notice must state the provisions of this article with which compliance is required and must state that the school district will not initiate proceedings if the child complies with the identified provisions before the proceedings are filed.

REGULATIONS

1 CCR 301-45. Section 2620-R-2.04. Documentation and notification requirements.

(1) If there is a reasonable probability that restraint might be used with a particular student, appropriate school staff must notify, in writing, the parents and, if appropriate, the student of the restraint procedures (including types of restraints) that might be used; specific circumstances in which restraint might be used; and staff involved. For students with disabilities, if the parents request a meeting with school personnel to discuss the notification, school personnel must ensure that the meeting is convened. This notification may occur at the meeting where the student's Behavior Plan or IEP is developed/reviewed.

(2) If restraints are used by any school employee or volunteer, a written report must be submitted within one (1) school day to school administration.

(3) The school principal or designee shall verbally notify the parents as soon as possible but no later than the end of the school day that the restraint was used.

(4) A written report based on the findings of the staff review referenced in Section 2.05(1)(a) of these Rules, must be emailed, faxed, or mailed to the parent within five (5) calendar days of the use of restraint. The written report of the use of restraint must include:

(a) The antecedent to the student's behavior if known;

(b) A description of the incident;

(c) Efforts made to deescalate the situation;

(d) Alternatives that were attempted;

(e) The type and duration of the restraint used;

(f) Injuries that occurred, if any; and

(g) The staff present, and staff involved in administering the restraint.

(5) A copy of the written report on the use of restraint shall be placed in the student's confidential file.

American Institutes for Research

U.S. Department of Education

The contents of the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments Web site were assembled under contracts from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools to the American Institutes for Research (AIR), Contract Number  91990021A0020.

This Web site is operated and maintained by AIR. The contents of this Web site do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education nor do they imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education.

©2024 American Institutes for Research — Disclaimer   |   Privacy Policy   |   Accessibility Statement