January 17, 2025  | Dianne Criswell

Legislative Round-Up: State Law Changes from the 2024 Regular Session

August 21, 2024

Dianne Criswell, General Counsel

This article overviews these policy changes enacted in the 2024 regular session of the Colorado General Assembly in order to provide information to CSD Pool members; however, this information is not a substitute for legal advice. The CSD Pool encourages its members to work with their human resource colleagues or legal counsel on questions related to these topics. 

1. Background Checks for Coaches; Code of Conduct

For special districts providing youth athletic activities, SB24-113 (Safer Youth Sports) requires a pre-employment criminal history record check (“background check”) for coaches. The background check must determine if the person being investigated has been convicted of, or pled nolo contendere for felony child abuse, a felony of unlawful sexual behavior. Any person who has been convicted of, pled nolo contendere to felony child abuse, a felony of unlawful sexual behavior, or an offense committed in any other state is disqualified from employment as a coach of a youth athletic activity. The background check provisions expressly applies to employees, but the definition of “coach” in another section of the law may cause some confusion because it includes volunteers.

Local governments may charge a person a fee for the criminal history record check and may rely on the results of a criminal history record check when making hiring and employment decisions.  A local government is immune from civil liability unless it have knowledge that the information is false or if it acts with reckless disregard concerning the reliability of the information.

SB24-133 also requires local governments providing youth athletic activities to adopt a Code of Conduct for youth sports.  As of the effective date of the bill, August 8, 2024, the state agency charged with drafting a model Code of Conduct (the Colorado Department of Early Childhood) has just begun its stakeholding.

Implementation Considerations: 

• Consider reviewing your employment and hiring practices to determine which positions meet the definitions of coaches of youth sports activities.
• For those positions, confer with human resource professionals and legal advisors to ensure that your pre-employment background checks comply with state and federal law, which require prior written consent. Further, ensure that these records are retained properly.
• The state’s Model Code of Conduct may not be available for some time.  Local governments may adopt the state’s Model Code but may adopt their own.

2. Public Employees’ Workplace Protection - Amended

As background, last year SB23-111 established the Protections for Public Workers Act (“PROPWA”) to grant new state statutory rights for public employees of certain state and local government employers, including special districts.  These protections include discussing or expressing views regarding public employee representation or workplace issues.  The Governor’s signing statement recognized the concerns expressed by local governments during the legislative session about SB23-111.

SB24-232 addressed some of the concerns of local governments by amending PROPWA by excluding the following from protected activities: recognition or negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement; some of the actions of managerial or confidential public employees; limitations necessary to maintain nonpartisan role of legislative, elections, or judicial staff; and actions that materially disrupt an employee’s duties, the public employer’s operations, or the delivery of public services. 

Implementation Considerations: 

• Update any steps your District previously took to implement SB23-111 with the exclusions or exceptions in SB24-232.
• Review the Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion (“INFO”) #15C, titled “Speech and Organizing Rights for Government Employees under [PROPWA],” published by the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. This INFO #15C provides guidance on SB23-111 and has not been updated for SB24-232.

Ramping up state funds for the Firefighter Heart and Cancer Programs

HB24-1219 makes 2 major changes to current firefighter benefit programs:

• First, the bill expands state funding for the firefighter heart and circulatory malfunction benefits program to include paid part-time and volunteer firefighters.
• Second, the bill provides state funding for the firefighter cancer benefits program for eligible full-time, part-time, and volunteer firefighters.

State funding ramps up over several years, with full funding in year five and thereafter and if state funding is insufficient, the requirement for employers to provide the Heart or Cancer Program becomes optional.

For CSD Pool Members with firefighters, these programs are intended to save lives and resources, including costs associated with workers’ compensation, medical, training, recruitment, and retention.

4. Web Accessibility Requirements

HB24-1454 creates a one-year extension to July 1, 2025, of immunity from liability for failure to comply with the digital accessibility standards for a governmental entity that demonstrates good faith efforts toward compliance or toward resolution of any complaint of noncompliance. The 2021 legislation (HB 21-1110) required state agencies and public entities to comply with digital accessibility standards on or before July 1, 2024.

5. Library Resources, Protection from Retaliation

SB24-216 requires boards of public libraries to establish policies for the acquisition, retention, and display of library resources, as well as a policy, with a process, for the removal of materials from circulation upon a request from a patron. Libraries must not remove materials based on demographic characteristics of the author of the material or based on partisan disapproval of the material in question.

Libraries may remove materials from circulation only if the material has been reviewed based on the policy that the board adopts. Boards that adopt policies for the potential removal of materials must post that policy publicly. A person who requests that a material be removed from circulation must reside in the legal service area of the library. These requests to remove materials are open records under the Colorado Open Records Act.

The bill protects any library staff member from retaliation, discrimination, or termination for refusing to comply with a request to remove material from circulation for any resource that is not removed in accordance with board policy.

6. Prohibition on Firearms in Public Spaces

SB24-131 prohibits a person from knowingly carrying a firearm, both openly and concealed, in the following government buildings, including their adjacent parking areas:

• State legislative buildings, including buildings at which the offices of elected members are located;
• A building of a local government's governing body, including buildings at which the offices of elected members or the chief executive officer of a local government are located; and
• A courthouse or other building used for court proceedings.

Unlawful carrying of a firearm in a government building is a class 1 misdemeanor. The bill includes exceptions for law enforcement officers, members of the United States armed forces or Colorado National Guard, security personnel, persons carrying as part of the lawful and common practices of a legal proceeding, and persons who hold a permit to carry a concealed handgun who are carrying a concealed handgun in an adjacent parking area. The bill permits a local government to enact a law permitting carrying at a local government building included in the bill.

Existing law prohibits openly carrying a firearm within any polling location or central count facility, or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box or any building in which a polling location or central count facility is located, while an election or any related ongoing election administration activity is in progress. The bill prohibits carrying a firearm in any manner at those locations.

Implementation Considerations: 

• Review the public buildings and adjacent parking areas for your District to determine how this law may apply.
• If your District previously adopted local regulations, consider reviewing them to determine if any updates are necessary.
• Inform your designated election officials of this change.
• Please note that this legislation does not modify or expand local government law enforcement authority.  Potential violations should be referred to the law enforcement authority for your District.

These new laws take time, care, attention – and sometimes new resources – to implement. Your district is not alone in facing these challenges as you comply with these laws and implement the new ones that are coming up on the horizon. Don’t forget that there are resources to help, including the CSD Pool HR resources which are provided as a member benefit:  conferring with a dedicated legal expert through the HR Helpline or utilizing ten (10) hours of consultation with CPS-HR.