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State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education �Full Council Meeting

November 18, 2025

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Business

August Minutes Approval

We Have a Full Council!

Vice Chair Election

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Let’s Connect

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IN PERSON

Find someone you don’t know very well.
Introduce yourself and your role on SACPIE.
Answer the question on your “We Connect” card.

ONLINE

Go into your breakout room.
Introduce yourself and your role on SACPIE.
Answer: “What is the weirdest thing in your fridge right now?”

Parent Members	Organization/Agency Members
Congressional District you represent (and geographic area) Why you joined SACPIE 2 additional pieces of info (job, ages of children, summer activities….etc)	Agency and role Why you joined SACPIE 2 additional pieces of info (pets, ages of children, podcast you like….etc)

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State Board of Education Updates

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CDE Policy Presentation for SACPIE

November 18, 2025

Colorado Department of Education

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Agenda for today

Introductions and Reminders
Legislative Process Overview
2026 Session Preview
BREAK
Educational Governance Fact Sheet

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Colorado Department of Education

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Legislative Process

Colorado Department of Education

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Legislative process

Introduction/1^st reading (House)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (House)

2nd reading (House)

3rd reading (House)

Introduction/1^st reading (Senate)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (Senate)

2nd reading (Senate)

3rd reading (Senate)

Conference committee

Chambers adopt conference report

Bill goes to Governor for signature

Bill has become law

Colorado Department of Education

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Committees

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House Committees of Reference

Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources

Appropriations

Business Affairs & Labor

Education

Energy & Environment

Finance

Health & Human Services

Judiciary

State, Civic, Veterans, & Military Affairs

Transportation, Housing & Local Government

Senate Committees of Reference

Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources

Appropriations

Business Affairs and Labor

Education

Finance

Health, Insurance, & Environment

Judiciary

Local Government & Housing

Health & Human Services

State, Veterans, & Military Affairs

Transportation & Energy

Colorado Department of Education

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Legislative Process

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Introduction/1^st reading (House)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (House)

2nd reading (House)

3rd reading (House)

Introduction/1^st reading (Senate)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (Senate)

2nd reading (Senate)

3rd reading (Senate)

Conference committee

Chambers adopt conference report

Bill goes to Governor for signature

Bill has become law

Colorado Department of Education

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2^nd and 3^rd Readings

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2^nd reading provides opportunity for House members not sitting on the committees of reference to make amendments; a “voice vote” is conducted.
3^rd reading provides another opportunity for amendments; an electronic vote is conducted and displayed.

Colorado Department of Education

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Legislative Process

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Introduction/1^st reading (House)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (House)

2nd reading (House)

3rd reading (House)

Introduction/1^st reading (Senate)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (Senate)

2nd reading (Senate)

3rd reading (Senate)

Conference committee

Chambers adopt conference report

Bill goes to Governor for signature

Bill has become law

Colorado Department of Education

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Legislative Process

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Introduction/1^st reading (House)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (House)

2nd reading (House)

3rd reading (House)

Introduction/1^st reading (Senate)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (Senate)

2nd reading (Senate)

3rd reading (Senate)

Conference committee

Chambers adopt conference report

Bill goes to Governor for signature

Bill has become law

Colorado Department of Education

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Legislative Process

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Introduction/1^st reading (House)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (House)

2nd reading (House)

3rd reading (House)

Introduction/1^st reading (Senate)

Committee hearing(s) and vote(s) (Senate)

2nd reading (Senate)

3rd reading (Senate)

Conference committee

Chambers adopt conference report

Bill goes to Governor for signature

Bill has become law

Colorado Department of Education

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2026 Preview

Colorado Department of Education

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Budget Outlook

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The state is entering FY 2026-27 facing a significant budget shortfall, which will drive much of the debate for the 2026 legislative session.
H.R. 1 created a $1.2 billion revenue shortfall, necessitating action to rebalance the current fiscal year 2025-26 budget, and created ongoing costs to the state in new Medicaid and SNAP administrative burdens.
The Governor’s November 1 budget requested expenditures of $50.7 billion, including $18.6 billion General Fund. The FY 2026-27 budget request is a $2.7 billion (5.6 percent) total funds increase over FY 2025-26. The General Fund obligations are increasing by $426 million (2.3 percent).
In his briefing to K-12 stakeholders, Governor Polis noted the increasing pressures on the state budget, including significant increases in Medicaid costs.

Medicaid expenses have grown an average of 8.8% annually over the last ten years, which is nearly twice the revenue the state government can keep under TABOR.

Colorado Department of Education

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CDE Budget Requests (approved by SBE)

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Reductions/Eliminations

Administrative Efficiencies and Reductions (-$345,013)
Local Accountability System Grant Reduction (-$100,000)
CMAS and CoAlt Social Studies Elimination (-$830,000)*
READ Act Awareness Campaign Reduction (-$200,000)
READ Act Evaluation Reduction (-$375,000 annually/-$750,000 every two years)
Science Professional Development Reduction (-$1,500,000)*

Requests

State Equal System Modernization Phase II ($6,300,000)**
Out-of-State Placement Changes ($0)

*These requests were removed or altered in the Governor’s Nov. 1 proposal

**Preliminary figures

Colorado Department of Education

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Governor’s Proposed Budget for K-12

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Overall K-12 spending:

Includes an increase in statewide K-12 spending by $276 million, bringing total K-12 spending $10.3 billion
Increases per pupil spending to an average of $12,272
Follows the legislature’s plan to phase-in the new school finance formula in seven years (30% for the coming year) and moves to a three-year average for enrollment in 2026-27.

Specific K-12 proposals:

Streamlines the READ Act awareness campaign and changes the evaluation from an annual process to a biennial process
Does not incorporate CDE’s suggested budget reductions to decrease funding for science professional development.
Restructures the statewide social studies assessment, shifting the assessment from sample testing one-third of students in 4th and 7th grades to administering the assessment to all students in 7th grade only.
Includes a $2 million set aside from the State Education Fund to provide one-time funding for schools to participate in an evidence-based math accelerator program.

Colorado Department of Education

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Legislation to Watch

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504 Complaint Process
Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Complaints
READ Act
Kindergarten Readiness Assessment
Administrative Burden
Educator Recruitment and Retention Program Flexibility

Colorado Department of Education

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BREAK

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Educational Governance Fact Sheet

Colorado Department of Education

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Purpose

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The fact sheet provides a summary of educational governance in Colorado and how that structure impacts education policy.
The purpose is to increase understanding for parent and community leaders who do not work in the education system.
When advocates understand the entities that have authority over various policies, they can feel more empowered and can be more effective and precise in their policy efforts.

Colorado Department of Education

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Small Group Discussion

Form a group of three.
Review the Colorado Education Governance document.
Go to the google slide deck.
Answer the following questions

Is the level and amount of content appropriate?
Where and how should we distribute?
Where do we go from here?

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Feedback and Questions

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Email us at PolicyTeam@cde.state.co.us

Colorado Department of Education

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ESEA Stakeholder Engagement

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Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Stakeholder Engagement

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The Question

How can CDE improve communication with districts regarding ESEA parent and family engagement requirements?

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A “fun” exercise

Please access this survey regarding general ESEA knowledge
When answering questions, think about answering from your perspective as a parent. If not a parent, please answer the questions based on your interactions with a school district you are familiar with.
“I don’t know” and “Unfamiliar” are perfectly acceptable and encouraged answers.

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ESEA Stakeholder Engagement Requirements

Development of the LEA Plan
Reasonable Opportunity for Public Comment
Title I, Part A Annual Meeting
Annual Report to the Public
LEA Parent and Family Engagement Policy
Building Parent and Family Capacity
Requirements regarding how communications are clear, concise, and in language that parents can understand

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How CDE Communicates Requirements

The Consolidated Application

Specific questions regarding how stakeholders were consulted in creating funding plans, providing feedback on proposed uses, and evaluation of previous uses.
Various training events, technical support, and resources provided to LEAs throughout the year.

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How CDE Communicates Requirements

CDE’s ESEA Parent and Family Engagement Website*

Description of how parent and family engagement is a part of ESEA
Resources for District’s regarding ESEA requirements
Review of allowable activities for parent and family engagement
Resources to help parents, schools, and districts understand and implement requirements
Proposed updated website

ESEA Monitoring

*Currently undergoing maintenance

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The Question

How can CDE improve communication with districts regarding ESEA parent and family engagement requirements?

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Increasing Student Engagement

Decreasing Chronic Absenteeism

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CDE Strategic Plan

SACPIE written into CDE Strategic Plan!

Increasing Student Engagement
Integrate and elevate family and community partnerships to increase student engagement.

Conduct listening/feedback sessions with family-facing groups that the Family and School Community Partnerships (FSCP) Community of Practice members oversee/support..

Revise Family and School Community Partnerships (FSCP) Framework materials to emphasize the connection between FSCP and student engagement.

Develop and publish high-impact district and family-facing materials and trainings that are culturally responsive through an iterative development process with SACPIE.

Leverage CDE’s out-of-school time (OST) programs to improve school day attendance and increase student and family engagement.

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Closing the Feedback Loop

Late August–Conducted focus group with SACPIE.
Early September–Johann, Martha, and Darcy debrief synthesis of responses.
Late September–shared synthesis with Increasing Student Engagement leadership team and discussed next steps.
Mid October–Presented progress to the State Board of Education.
Late October–cleaned up synthesis of responses and discussed again at ISE leadership team meeting.
Early November–Johann, Martha, and Darcy met again.
TODAY!
Soon–Hopefully conduct focus groups with Migrant PAC and C-SEAC.

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Toolkits

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Small Group Discussion

Form a group of three.
Review the items from the CDE toolkit and the summary from August

Go to the google slide deck and have the focus group synthesis handy.
Answer the following questions

Where do you think these resources would be valuable?
Are there things missing that would resonate with you or other parents you represent?
Do these resources align with SACPIE’s focus group responses from August?

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Our strategies to increase student engagement are based on a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach.

Improving Attendance and Engagement

Capacity on effective strategies & structures

Engaging and Innovative instruction

Student and staff well-being

Physical, mental, and behavioral health

Family and Community Partnerships

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Looking back and looking forward: capacity building and wellness

Capacity on effective strategies & structures

Physical, mental, and behavioral health

Shared guidance, data tools, attendance awareness campaign and learning opportunities

Healthy School Meals for All Average Daily Meals served:

Breakfast ~194,000
Lunch ~450,000

Targeted outreach and expanded professional learning opportunities

Trainings and resources to support specialized service provider retention

2024-2025

2025-2026

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Danielle

Last year, to increase school and district capacity to implement effective attendance strategies and structures, we launched activities to raise awareness, including our Attendance Awareness campaign, Every School Day Matters, new guidance documents on rules and best practices, and learning opportunities that brought together school and district leaders to share and learn about effective practices. The peer learning cohort model was particularly valuable in this time period when almost every district in Colorado was experiencing absences at levels they had not seen previously.

In 2025-26, we are looking to expand the opportunities we started and target resources for grants and training towards highest needs. We are expanding professional learning opportunities so there are options from basic to advanced and attendance and engagement are incorporated into other efforts. In addition, as we have seen stubborn trends in attendance, we are looking for additional ways to target current grant dollars and ensure that there is specific recruitment for key events and support that CDE offers.

We are striving to coordinate and integrate physical, mental, and behavioral supports into our school communities, to address some of the barriers and aversions to school. In 2024-25, we worked on a number of efforts related to comprehensive health, including the role of school nurses, school nutrition, and how other health professionals are essential in meeting student needs and helping them stay connected to learning. One such area of coordination is around the healthy school meals program which has expanded access for students and served more than xx meals last school year These meals ensure that hunger is not a barrier to learning and students can continue to engage. We have also heard anecdotally, that healthy school meals for all has been a draw for students to come to school every day.

For our 2025-26 school year, we want to highlight a focus on staff retention for our specialized service providers. We are updating and expanding the resources that enable school health professionals, school nurses, mental health providers, and others with the key information and guidance to complete their role effectively.

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Looking back and looking forward: strengthening instruction and well-being

Engaging and Innovative Instruction

Student and staff well-being

Bringing data together across CDE to elevate effective practices

300+ trainings supporting student and staff well-being

Listening sessions, elevating promising practices, creating a common vision for Best First Instruction.

Developing and releasing asynchronous, on-demand online learning modules

2024-2025

2025-2026

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Danielle

Another aspect that can impact student engagement is the classroom learning experience. At the CASE conference this summer, Fountain Fort Carson’s Youth Advisory Council presented on their work. When asked about what areas students would like more voice in, multiple advisory council members spoke about instruction and learning models.

While we have spent less time on this component so far, we are doing early planning with colleagues from across CDE that you will hear more about in the Accelerating Student Outcomes presentation. Initially, we have analyzed data together to highlight effective practices in this area and looking forward to the work on a common vision for best first instruction that we can support and use with districts.

For this year, we plan to collaborate across CDE to host a series of community listening sessions, including students, to better understand what is driving student attendance and engagement, how families are interacting with schools around engagement, and how innovation around learning supports student engagement, especially at the high school level. We’ll appreciate your help getting the word out about the listening session.

In terms of student and staff well-being, last year over 10 offices at CDE provided training to more than 300 individuals on issues impacting student and staff well being such as behavior, discipline, mental and physical health, school safety, school climate, and multi-level or multi-tiered systems of support. These trainings focus on strategies to build strong student relationships and connections at school, build safe and engaging learning environments, and create processes that remove barriers to continuous engagement in learning. In addition, this included finalizing a number of components of the Landscape of Well-Being and Belonging, a project to provide training, guidance, resources, and information about best practices to improve student and staff well-being.

This year, we will continue our work on the Landscape of Well-Being and Belonging to finalize tools such as self-assessments and implementation guides and provide training for school and district leaders on implementation. In addition, we just concluded our most recent Landscape conference in September and will include new asynchronous on-demand online learning modules that can help broaden access to new information.

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Looking back and looking forward: engaging parents and families

Family and Community Partnerships

Worked with 700+ family-family professionals in districts and community organizations

Co-create multi-faceted tools for families and staff, (including SACPIE) to get feedback on tools for attendance

2024-2025

2025-2026

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Danielle

Lastly, we are working to integrate and elevate family and community partnerships. Last year we worked with over 400 district and community leaders providing family engagement and family education programs through out-of-school time programs. This includes before and after school, summer school, school breaks and 5th day enrichment programming for schools with 4 day school weeks. The type of support provided includes statewide grantee webinars, meetings, onsite visits, statewide trainings and convenings, as well as individualized technical assistance from CDE’s Office of Student Support. Additionally, 3,714 family members participated in at least one activity for state and federally funded out of school time programs. We also partnered with over 300 individuals in 52 districts to help staff implement the P-12 family, school, and community partnerships framework. This framework is part of a step-by-step guide for districts and schools to follow in order to partner with families for positive student outcomes, including improved attendance.

For the coming year, we are planning to focus on partnering with family-facing advisory groups, community organizations, and district staff to co-create and share tools about how family and community partnerships can help increase student engagement and improve attendance. For example, our staff attended the September State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE) meeting (and appreciated having representatives from the Board there) to gather feedback and discuss tools that would be effective. These tools will likely include self-paced courses, toolkits, learning cohorts, and promising partnership practices. We will expand on resources that already exist to more intentionally include a family/community partnership and attendance component.

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Colorado Department of Education FSCP Report

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Office of FSCP Updates

STATE-LEVEL LEADERSHIP

DIRECT FACILITATION OF DISTRICTS

Annual

FSCP

Goal

Epstein et al., 2019

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Office of FSCP Updates

STATE-LEVEL LEADERSHIP

DIRECT FACILITATION OF DISTRICTS

FSCP:

Back to Basics

Scaling-up regional supports
FSCP Think Tank for Collaborative districts
Coffee Chats–Principal Focus
FSCP integrated into three Learning Cohorts

Office of FSCP has moved!
FSCP SEA Core Competencies
FSCP integrated into other offices’ performance goals

SACPIE

Filled Vacancies
Annual Report 2025
Provide Feedback on CDE website

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SACPIE Member�Resource Sharing

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Mark Your Calendars!

Full Council Meetings

Reminder: Members must attend at least three meetings per year.

November 18, 2025

February 10, 2026

May 5, 2026

August 25, 2026?

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Thank you!�