House Appropriations advances child-transition, pension and tribal measures; sends a dozen bills to Committee of the Whole

During its morning session, the Colorado House Appropriations Committee advanced a package of bills to the Committee of the Whole, including a measure on transition planning for children in foster care (House Bill 10 97), a bill that may affect pension funding arrangements (House Bill 11 05), and a bill committing the state to explore expanding a tribal program (House Bill 11 63).

The committee adopted several amendments to bills on the agenda and then voted to send each measure to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Most votes were recorded by roll call and resulted in favorable recommendations; a subset of bills prompted substantive discussion on county capacity, child-centered planning and the state’s pension liability.

Representative Gilchrist, sponsor of House Bill 10 97, described amendments that removed a mandatory template and training compliance monitoring requirement and eliminated the fiscal note. “We believe that the bill will still require counties to have these transition placement plans and CDHS can work with them to implement the plans,” Gilchrist said. The sponsor said an exception for the meeting requirement remains in the bill.

Representative McCormick urged the sponsor to further narrow and simplify the bill to “prioritize the experience of the child.” McCormick said counties had reported the meeting requirement creates additional staff time and that some counties lack resources for highly prescriptive planning. “To look at that again and the prescriptive…