PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION

This is one of the four bills for which I am the prime sponsor. It is being sponsored in the House by both Representatives Debbie Benefield and Michael Merrifield.

The bill seeks to improve parent involvement in education from early childhood through college, with the goal of improving student achievement, closing achievement gaps, decreasing the dropout rate, and improving the enrollment and success in postsecondary education. The bill proposes to do these things by creating an advisory council to research and report on best practices and strategies for parent involvement; by creating a grant program for parent education; and by allowing more parents to be on district and school accountability committees and other education-related boards and committees. The bill was initiated by COPINE (Colorado Parent Involvement Network for Education), whose interest in part is to enhance Colorado’s ability to comply with the parent involvement provisions of No Child Left Behind.

The bill passed the Senate on a 24 to 9 vote. The 9 Senators who voted against it expressed concern that the House would change it so that it would become like HB 1057, which requires employees to be allowed leave from work to attend certain academic activities at their children’s schools. (But HB 1057 has already passed both the House and the Senate.)

Read the full bill:

Here