Teach Plus Colorado today issued the following statement on the passage of House Bill 1376 sponsored by Representatives Leslie Herod and Mary Young and Senators Kevin Prioloa and Faith Winter.
“Teach Plus and Teach Plus teacher leaders are pleased that HB22-1376 passed the Colorado Legislature. The “Supportive Learning Environments For K-12 Students” legislation will begin to address the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure a focus on safe and inviting school climates for all students. The bill addresses a number of educators’ concerns and includes several recommendations from Teach Plus teacher leaders on the effective collection of student discipline data, the use of restraints on students, and the training of Student Resource Officers.
As Teach Plus Colorado Policy Fellow Veronica Bell stated in her testimony, “For students to be productive and successful academically, they must feel safe, connected, and supported. I support HB 22-1376 because I want to see students honored as whole people. I also know that what gets measured, gets done. If we want to improve students’ experience at school and thus their overall learning outcomes, we must take the first step to collecting the data. Then we can make sure that each student starts their day with joy and connection, knowing that they belong to our school family and that we are so excited to see them.”
“While we celebrate the passage of this bill, we recognize that there is work ahead of us to ensure that all students will be in schools that support them,” said Teach Plus Colorado Executive Director Mark Sass. “We look forward to working with the coalition of equity-minded organizations on the important issue of school climate.”
About Teach Plus
The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. Since 2009, Teach Plus has developed thousands of teacher leaders across the country to exercise their leadership in shaping education policy and improving teaching and learning, to create an education system driven by access and excellence for all. teachplus.org
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Contact: Anya Grottel-Brown, agrottelbrown@teachplus.org, 917-902-5902
