{"id":32471,"date":"2023-08-08T00:32:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T06:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-public-education-system-just-improved-for-special-education-and-multilingual-families\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:58:30","slug":"colorados-public-education-system-just-improved-for-special-education-and-multilingual-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-public-education-system-just-improved-for-special-education-and-multilingual-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s public education system just improved for special education and multilingual families"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cortez
Cortez school board members declared a critical teacher shortage, which is affecting schools in the district, including Montezuma-Cortez High School.<\/span>Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A new Colorado law took effect Monday to improve education by reducing language barriers in special education learning plans, aiming to improve educational opportunities for students and their families.<\/p>\n

House Bill23-1263, called Translating Individualized Education Programs, prevents interruptions from language barriers in schools and allows multilingual parents and guardians to be actively involved in their child\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

It was signed by Gov. Jared Polis on May 25.<\/p>\n

Individualized education programs are mandatory for every public school student who qualifies for and receives special education services. Now IEP must include each multilingual students\u2019 primary language spoken at home.<\/p>\n

This law positions students to improve their ability to learn and improve their results in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Brandi Durr, San Juan BOCES\u2019 director of Exceptional Student Services, said the agency provides translation services to member districts. Because translation services are expensive, the Colorado Department of Education is developing a reimbursement structure to help offset district translation costs.<\/p>\n

San Juan BOCES is less impacted by this House bill when compared with higher numbers in other regions across the state for multilingual students and families. San Juan BOCES has 1,119 students who have IEP.<\/p>\n

Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, said in the news release that this law gives accessible opportunities for a diverse group of families to craft their students\u2019 special education learning plan.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, the dominant non-English language spoken by students with disabilities is Spanish, followed by a significant drop to Arabic and Vietnamese, as shown in a graph provided by Colorado Department of Education.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School. Translating Individualized Education Programs, which prevents interruptions from language barriers in schools, took effect Aug. 7.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Starting Aug. 7, all special education related documents, including the IEP and draft IEP, need to be translated to the primary language spoken at students\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

Reps. Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County, Mary Young, D-Greeley and Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, joined Gonzales in sponsoring the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents and guardians are invested in their child\u2019s success at school, but language barriers can prevent them from understanding the details and requirements of their individual child\u2019s education plan,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cThis law works with local school districts to ensure that translated drafts of individualized education programs are provided so parents and guardians can be involved in their child\u2019s special education eligibility. Together, we\u2019re improving equity in our schools and making sure every learner is set up for success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HB23-1263 took effect today to reduce language barriers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81805,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32471\/revisions\/81805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32471"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}