(1) Subject to the supervision of the state board, the commissioner has the following duties: (a) To advise the state board concerning the current operation and status of the public schools and upon other educational matters; (b) To supply the state board with such information as it may require and to prepare for the board to transmit annually a report accounting to the governor and the house and senate committees on education for the efficient discharge of all responsibilities assigned by law or directive to the department, and to issue all publications of the department circulated in quantity outside the executive branch in accordance with the provisions of section 24-1-136, C.R.S.; (c) To prepare and submit to the state board a budget for the department and to properly execute the approved budget in accordance with appropriations; (d) To establish and maintain a system of personnel administration within the department; (e) To cause all policies, rules, and regulations adopted by the state board to be duly executed; (f) To serve as state librarian pursuant to section 24-90-104 (2), C.R.S.; (g) To visit public schools and communities which most need his personal attendance for the purpose of stimulating and guiding public sentiment to education and diffusing by public addresses and personal communication with parents, school officers, and teachers a knowledge of existing defects of and a knowledge of desirable improvements in the government, finance, curriculum of, and instruction in the public schools; (h) To establish and maintain adequate statistical, academic performance, safety environment, and financial records of school districts, including records required by article 11 of this title; (i) To cause to be reprinted annually laws enacted by the general assembly concerning education, in accordance with the provisions of section 24-1-136, C.R.S., and to furnish copies thereof to interested persons. All publishing costs therefor shall be paid out of the state public school fund pursuant to section 22-54-114 (5). (j) To perform other duties as may be delegated to him by law or by the state board; (k) To submit to the governor and the general assembly, not later than the first day of September of each year, a report which shall discuss educational issues in Colorado and such other subjects as the commissioner may deem appropriate. The commissioner shall also submit such fiscal, instructional, academic progress, and other information as may be required by the state board to reflect the quality of education in the state. Statistical data by school district regarding drop-out rates, teacher-pupil ratios, number of courses offered, teacher turnover rates, and reading and achievement scores will be available upon request. (l) To prepare a manual setting forth simplified election procedures for use by the election judges in the district. He shall notify the superintendent of each district that such a manual is available and that copies will be furnished upon request and free of charge. When the school election laws have changed, he shall revise the manual to comply with the then existing laws. Such revisions may be made by inserts to the manual. (m) To supervise, manage, and control the Colorado school for the deaf and the blind at Colorado Springs; (n) To enter into an interagency agreement with the department of health care policy and financing and to promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary under the agreement to enable school districts, boards of cooperative services, and state educational institutions to enter into contracts and to receive federal matching funds for moneys spent in providing student health services as provided in section 25.5-5-301 (6) or 25.5-5-318, C.R.S.; (o) To comply with the duties set forth in article 11 of this title; (p) To establish and maintain an educator identifier system to assign unique identifiers to educators employed in a school district or local education agency. Each educator's identifier must be unique. The identifier must not use any personal identifying information, such as social security numbers or contact information, except for alignment purposes in data processing. Any personal identifying information that is collected must be linked in a secure data location so data sets can be matched based on the personal identifying information when the identifier is not included. (q) (I) To assist the state board in reviewing the content of educator preparation programs in the state by preparing an annual report on the effectiveness of educator preparation programs. (II) For purposes of this subsection (1)(q), the department shall use data collected from an educator in the educator's first three years of placement as the educator of record. (III) To the extent the relevant data is available at the time of the annual report, the report required pursuant to this subsection (1)(q) must include, but need not be limited to, the correlation between different educator preparation programs in the state, including alternative educator preparation programs, and student academic growth, educator placement, educator mobility and retention, and educator performance evaluation ratings. (IV) The department shall make the report prepared pursuant to this subsection (1)(q) available to the public on the department's website no later than thirty days after the report's completion. The department shall share the information with educator preparation programs to inform curriculum and program improvements. (r) Repealed. (s) To facilitate employment first policies and practices by: (I) Providing input and assistance to the employment first advisory partnership described in section 8-84-303, C.R.S., in carrying out its duties; and (II) Presenting the reports and recommendations of the employment first advisory partnership to the department's legislative committee of reference pursuant to section 8-84-303 (7), C.R.S. (t) To annually distribute to each school district and to the state charter school institute informational materials received from the department of personnel pursuant to section 24-5-102 relating to federal student loan repayment programs and student loan forgiveness programs. (u) (I) To prepare an annual report on the number of pupils enrolled in public schools in the state based on the pupil enrollments reported to the state board pursuant to section 22-54-112 (2)(a) for the applicable school year, and the number of school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, and school psychologists in the state, licensed by the department pursuant to part 2 of article 60.5 of this title 22, and employed by a school district, board of cooperative services, charter school, or entity that contracts with any of the above who are reported as full-time equivalent or part-time employees. The report must state the number of pupils and licensed and employed school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers, and school nurses in total for the state and disaggregated by school district, board of cooperative services, and the state charter school institute. (II) The department shall make the report prepared pursuant to this subsection (1)(u) available to the public on its website no later than thirty days after its completion each year. (v) Upon the repeal of part 2 of article 82.9 of this title 22 and in accordance with section 39-22-104 (3)(p.5)(II), to promptly notify the executive director of the department of revenue in writing that the healthy school meals for all program is repealed. (2) In accordance with section 22-2-107 (1)(c), the commissioner shall establish requirements enabling residents of this state who are seventeen years of age or older or who are sixteen years of age and satisfy the requirements of section 22-33-104.7 to successfully complete a high school equivalency examination, as defined in section 22-33-102 (8.5). (3) Repealed. (4) (a) The commissioner shall ensure that the department, subject to available appropriations, annually allocates money to school districts, district charter schools, and institute charter schools to reimburse them for the costs of administering developmental education placement or assessment tests pursuant to sections 22-32-109.5, 22-30.5-117, and 22-30.5-526, respectively, to students enrolled in grades nine through twelve. The department shall allocate money to offset the costs incurred in administering each of the test units only once per student while the student is enrolled in grades nine through twelve. (b) The general assembly finds that, for purposes of section 17 of article IX of the state constitution, administering developmental education placement or assessment tests to students in grades nine through twelve is an accountable program to meet state academic standards and is a component of accountability reporting and may therefore receive funding from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution. (5) On and after August 10, 2016, the board of education of a school district that intends to seek voter approval of bonded indebtedness for the purpose of constructing a building that the school district may lease to a state institution of higher education or that intends to lease other school district property to a state institution of higher education, and that intends, in either situation, to receive in-kind services in lieu of part or all of the lease payments, must submit to the commissioner a letter of intent to lease property to a state institution of higher education. The commissioner shall approve the first three letters of intent that are submitted after August 10, 2016, and shall not approve subsequent submittals until July 1, 2021, at which point the commissioner may approve the first three letters of intent submitted after that date. A school district board of education may proceed with plans to lease property to a state institution of higher education or to seek voter approval of bonded indebtedness to construct a building for lease to a state institution of higher education only if the school district's letter of intent is approved by the commissioner. The provisions of this subsection (5) do not apply to a building lease between a school district and a state institution of higher education that exists as of August 10, 2016. (6) If a school district fails to replace categorical program support funds as required in section 22-54-107, the commissioner shall withhold from any state money due to the school district for any reason the unpaid amount of categorical program support funds recoverable from the school district. The commissioner shall withhold the state money commencing in the budget year immediately following the budget year in which the school district fails to pay the recoverable amount. The commissioner shall assess and recover an interest fee on the unpaid amount, beginning July 1, at a rate that is equal to the earnings on the treasury pooled funds for the previous fiscal year; except that the commissioner may waive accrued interest upon recovery of the unpaid amount. (7) Repealed. (8) Notwithstanding any provision of section 22-2-111 to the contrary, the commissioner shall ensure that the department of education cooperates with the department of early childhood as provided in section 26.5-1-111 in sharing, managing, and protecting qualitative and quantitative data needed to measure longitudinal outcomes of early childhood programs and services.
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