Monday, February 9, 2015

CO GT Blog Article- Proposed Amendments to ECEA Rules 2015

Colorado Gifted and Talented Blog

Source of the latest information and events concerning Colorado Gifted and Talented Children, Parents, Administrators and Legislators.

Proposed Amendments to ECEA Rules 2015

As required by the passage of HB14-1102 last year, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is recommending changes to the Rules for the Administration of the Exceptional Children’s Educational Act (ECEA) pertaining to Gifted Education. Administrative rules provide an administrative framework and clarity for schools and districts as they provide services. The Colorado State Board of Education is responsible for approving and implementing such Rules.
The State Board of Education will hold a Rulemaking Hearing on the proposed changes on Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. in the State Board Room at the Colorado Department of Education, 201 E. Colfax, Denver, Colorado 80203.
Any interested persons may provide oral testimony at the hearing. Written comments may be submitted to the Office of the Colorado State Board of Education by the close of business on Friday, February 27, 2015 by e-mail to state.board@cde.state.co.us or at the following address: Office of the Colorado State Board of Education, 201 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO 80203.
Comments favoring these changes would be greatly appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The purpose of these Rules is to provide the administrative framework and clarity for services offered to students throughout all of Colorado pursuant to the terms of the Exceptional Children’s Educational Act (ECEA). Current ECEA Colorado Revised Statute (CRS) 22-20-202 can be found hereThe Rules need to be updated because of recent Colorado legislation (HB 14-1102, HB 14-1208).
Colorado House Bill 14-1102 became Colorado law on June 5, 2014. House Bill 14-1102 was important to gifted education in Colorado in several ways. It established an appropriation for a grant program to offset costs incurred by administrative units in universal screening and hiring qualified personnel. It codified the Gifted Education State Advisory Committee. It requires each administrative unit to use at least a minimum body of evidence to base the determination of giftedness and to make a good-faith effort to have a qualified person to administer the gifted program. It also requires procedures for portability of identification; clarifies contents, procedures and responsibilities involving advanced learning plans; accountability for gifted student academic achievement; evaluation of gifted programs; accountability for program budgets and expenditures; and, procedures for family engagement (more information about HB 14-1102 can be found here). Additional changes include amending the definition of administrative unit to include “multi-district administrative unit” and amendments that replace expired rules related to temporary educator eligibility authorization.
The proposed updated rules can be found here. The full current ECEA rules are here.
The CDE has also provided a visual matrix for the reference and understanding of how the proposed changes to the ECEA rules address current ECEA law.
Article by Kathee Jones. See original article here:http://www.coloradogifted.org/blog/proposed-amendments-to-ecea-rules-2015.html