Education committee advances K‑12 accountability overhaul, adopts seven amendments

The House Education Committee voted 12‑1 to advance House Bill 12‑78 as amended to the Appropriations Committee after a lengthy amendment phase in which the sponsor offered and the panel adopted seven changes to the proposal.

The bill, the sponsor said, is intended to implement the recommendations of a 26‑member K‑12 accountability task force and to “transform the K‑12 accountability system,” with changes to assessments, accreditation and postsecondary and workforce readiness measures.

Committee members adopted seven amendments (L001–L007). The sponsor summarized the package as technical and stakeholder‑driven, saying it was developed with “many stakeholders” and would, in the sponsor’s words, “make great progress and have a really positive impact on our K‑12 education system across the state.”

Taken together, the adopted amendments make these principal changes to the bill: - L001: Limits the use of smaller CMAS subsections to students with individualized education programs (IEPs) or 504 plans, and ties statewide grade‑level translation to a 1,500–student trigger for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). - L002: Revises accreditation calculation rules so that counting students after two years of completing special education plans applies only to students with IEPs and applies across performance indicators; it also moves SAT/ACT into the…