Report of the On-Line Task Force Created by HB14-1382

Prepared for the Colorado State Board of Education, House Education Committee, Senate Education Committee in 2014

The On-line Task Force was created in response to Colorado House Bill 14-1382, and was charged with providing recommendations for: standards for authorizers of multi-district on-line schools; regulatory and statutory changes necessary to certify and to discontinue certification of those authorizers; establishing the frequency of and timeline for certification and recertification; the effect(s) on a multidistrict on-line school if its authorizer loses its certification; establishing parameters, duration, and methods for evaluating pilot programs; and to provide additional recommendations, as needed.

A task force of 15 (13 of which were voting members) was convened by the Colorado Department of Education from August through December of 2014. The task force was facilitated by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates. Members received and reviewed information from a variety of sources; reviewed accountability and performance rating data on the state’s current multi-district on-line schools; debated the issues and language associated with their charges; and created a set of recommendations for authorizer standards, a system for certifying authorizers (District, BOCES, & CSI) of multi-district on-line schools, rules and regulations, pilot programs, and other recommendations.

The August–December 2014 task force proposed establishing quality-based certification standards and a renewed certification process starting August 2016 for implementation in the 2017–18 school year, requiring existing authorizers to comply within five years and mandating that any authorizer who loses certification must allow schools to operate at least through the current and one additional school year. It also recommended that the legislature fund pilot programs for evaluating new models and refining data and oversight systems.