Posted on Tuesday, September, 3rd, 2019 in Newsroom.
A coalition has worked for 3 years to modify a Colorado law they say disproportionately affects minority and disabled students. It took a deal with rural educators to move forward.
In the past, rural educators blocked reform over how suspensions are handled in the state. In 2017, the Colorado Rural School Alliance successfully argued that proposed restrictions on suspensions would make it too hard for rural schools to handle difficult children they feared endangered safety.
But this year, advocates pushing to change the law have agreed to revisions in House Bill 1194 that appear to have appeased the alliance and other groups representing rural educators, primarily by agreeing to remove a three-day limit on the length of time young children can be suspended from school.