Colorado Bill Reduces Regulatory Burdens on Education Providers

Detected March 12th, 2026

Summary

Colorado's HB26-1299 aims to reduce regulatory burdens on local education providers. The bill proposes changes to how missing children data is shared, repeals requirements for paper and pencil assessment policies, and streamlines planning and evaluation submissions for certain educational institutions.

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What changed

Colorado House Bill HB26-1299, introduced for the 2026 Regular Session, seeks to alleviate regulatory burdens on local education providers. Key provisions include shifting the transmission of missing children data from school districts to the Colorado Department of Education, repealing the mandate for paper and pencil assessment policies, allowing smaller districts or charter networks to submit a single plan, exempting certain schools from licensed personnel evaluation submissions, and prohibiting the department from misrepresenting voluntary data collection requests as mandatory or conditioning benefits on their completion.

This bill, currently under consideration, will impact educational institutions within Colorado. Compliance officers should review the specific changes to reporting, planning, and evaluation requirements. While no immediate compliance deadline is set as the bill is still in draft, affected entities should monitor its progress through the legislative process. The primary impact is a reduction in administrative tasks and potential misinterpretations of data requests from the state department.

What to do next

Monitor the progress of Colorado HB26-1299 through the legislative process.
Review proposed changes to data transmission, assessment policies, and evaluation submissions for potential impact on educational institutions.

Source document (simplified)

HB26-1299

Reducing Regulatory Burden on Education Providers

| Type | Bill |
| --- | --- |
| Session | 2026 Regular Session |
| Subjects | Education & School Finance (Pre & K-12) |
Concerning reduction of regulatory burdens on local education providers.

Recent Bill (PDF) Recent Fiscal Note (PDF) Bill Summary:

The bill requires the Colorado bureau of investigation to transmit a list of missing children to the Colorado department of education (department) instead of each school district.

The bill repeals the requirement for a school district, board of cooperative services, district charter school, or institute charter school (local education provider) to have paper and pencil assessment policies for state-administered assessments in public schools.

The bill allows a school district, a charter school network, or a charter school collaborative with 1,200 students or fewer to submit a single plan to satisfy school district, school network, or school plan requirements.

The bill allows schools that have waived out of the underlying requirements for licensed personnel evaluations to be exempt from submitting licensed personnel evaluations.

The bill prohibits the department from representing a voluntary data collection request to a school district, the state charter school institute, or a public school as mandatory and prohibits the department from conditioning any benefit unrelated to a specific grant on the completion of a voluntary data collection request.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)