HB 17-1210: School Discipline for Preschool Through 2nd Grade

The bill prohibits a school district, BOCES, charter school, or public preschool program from expelling a 2nd grade or younger student, except required by federal law, and limits an out-of-school suspension to a total of 5 school days under specified circumstances for 2nd grade or younger students. School districts are required to adopt prevention and early intervention strategies to reduce the need for suspensions and expulsions for early childhood and early elementary grades.

Legislative procedure in Colorado requires every introduced bill to have a hearing in committee. The committee members will either support the bill and vote pass it out of committee for consideration by the full body, or kill the bill and vote to "postpone indefinitely.”

A pro-education vote on HB 1210 on the House Floor was a “yes” vote. However, the motion in the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee was to "postpone indefinitely” so the pro-education vote was a “no” vote.