(1) The general assembly finds that:
Several challenges exist in providing online programs, online schools, and supplemental programs that effectively and successfully meet the educational needs of students and their families;
Colorado's elementary and secondary education community is in a unique position tooperate pilot programs to try to meet these challenges by implementing innovative strategies to provide online education, including strategies for enhancing and measuring student academic growth and success; and
Authorizing and supporting pilot programs will help foster partnerships among education providers and result in data to support replication and the scaling of unique education policies that are successfully implemented through the pilot programs.
(2) (a) The department shall work with the task force created in section 22-30.7-112 to establish the parameters for, duration of, and methods for evaluating pilot programs as described in this section and to issue to authorizers requests for proposals for the pilot programs. The department shall issue the requests for proposals no later than October 15, 2014. The pilot programs must begin operation no later than the 2015-16 school year.
(b) The pilot programs may include, but need not be limited to:
A pilot program to use objective, verifiable, and multiple measures of student achievement as indicators of school quality, which measures align with the Colorado academic standards adopted pursuant to section 22-7-1005;
A pilot program to use a student-count process that is based on course completionand student competency rather than enrollment;
A pilot program to examine methods of using tiered interventions in online education to support individual students through a well-integrated system that is matched to students' academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs; and
A pilot program to identify and explain the requirements students must meet andthe responsibilities that students must accept to succeed in online education.
(c) An authorizer that participates in a pilot program pursuant to this section must continue to meet statutory and regulatory requirements, including but not limited to the requirements related to funding and accountability, while participating in the pilot program.
An authorizer that participates in a pilot program pursuant to this section shall submitto the department the data requested by the department to evaluate the success of the policies implemented through the pilot program. Beginning with the first school year in which a pilot program operates, the department shall prepare an annual written summary of each pilot program, which must, at a minimum, include a description of the pilot program, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the policies implemented through the pilot program, and an evaluation of whether the policies are scalable to other authorizers. The department shall submit the annual summary to the state board of education, the governor's office, and the education committees of the senate and the house of representatives, or any successor committees.
The department may accept and expend public and private gifts, grants, and donations to offset the costs incurred by the department and by participating authorizers in implementing pilot programs pursuant to this section. Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, the department must implement the provisions of this section only if the department receives appropriations or public or private gifts, grants, or donations in an amount it deems sufficient to offset the costs incurred in implementing pilot programs pursuant to this section.
Source: L. 2014: Entire section added, (HB 14-1382), ch. 332, p. 1482, § 3, effective June 5.
Editor's note: Although § 22-30.7-112 repealed on July 1, 2015, the reference to § 2230.7-112 is left in this section for historical purposes.