Colorado § 22-9-109 - Exemption from public inspection - definition.

§ 22-9-109. Exemption from public inspection - definition.

(1) Notwithstanding section 24-72-204 (3), an evaluation report and all public records, as defined in section 24-72-202, that are used in preparing the evaluation report are confidential and are available only to an educator being evaluated, to the duly elected and appointed public officials who supervise the educator's work, and to a hearing officer conducting a hearing pursuant to section 22-63-302 or the court of appeals reviewing a decision of the local board of education pursuant to section 22-63-302; except that:

(a) The evaluation report of the chief executive officer of any school district, as it relates to the performance of the chief executive officer in fulfilling the adopted school district objectives, fiscal management of the district, district planning responsibilities, and supervision and evaluation of district personnel, must be open for inspection by any person at reasonable times; and

(b) Evaluation reports and all public records as defined in section 24-72-202 (6), C.R.S., used in preparing the evaluation reports are available to individuals responsible for reviewing an appeal made by a nonprobationary teacher pursuant to section 22-9-106 (4.5)(b).

(1.5) As used in subsection (1) of this section, "educator" means a teacher, principal, administrator, special services provider, and an education support professional, as defined in section 22-2-502.

(2) Nothing in this section shall prevent a school district or a board of cooperative services from collecting information concerning an individual educator's performance evaluation ratings and student assessment results linked to the individual educator. A school district or board of cooperative services may use the information collected to fulfill its duties as required by law, including reporting this information in the aggregate at the state, district, or school level. In such instances, the identity of individual educators or students, including but not limited to student assessments results linked to the individual educator, must otherwise remain confidential and must not be published or publicly disclosed in any way that would identify an individual educator.

(3) Nothing in this section shall prevent the use of data collected by the department for bona fide research, when the data is obtained pursuant to the department's protocols for release of data for research purposes and is used in a manner that protects the identity of individual educators and adheres to the applicable provisions of the federal "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974", 20 U.S.C. sec. 1232g.

Source: L. 86, 2nd Ex. Sess.: Entire section added, p. 58, § 1, effective August 21. L. 90: Entire section amended, p. 1129, § 4, effective July 1. L. 2000: Entire section amended, p. 1854, § 49, effective August 2. L. 2013: Entire section amended, (HB 13-1220), ch. 163, p. 522, § 1, effective May 3. L. 2024: IP(1) amended and (1.5) added, (SB 24-132), ch. 106, p. 332, § 1, effective August 7; (3) amended, (HB 24-1450), ch. 490, p. 3414, § 35, effective August 7.

ANNOTATION

This section prohibits disclosing evaluation reports and all public records used in preparing such reports regardless of whether such documents are subject to disclosure under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). Migoya v. Wheeler, 2024 COA 124, 564 P.3d 1052.

The standards of review under CORA governing appellate review of a district court's ruling also govern appellate review of a district court's ruling regarding this act. Migoya v. Wheeler, 2024 COA 564 P.3d 1052.

22-9.5 ARTICLE 9.5

Principal Development Scholarship Program

22-9.5-101. Definitions.

22-9.5-102. Principal development scholarship program - creation - eligibility.

22-9.5-103. Scholarship program - rules - criteria for awards.

22-9.5-104. Principal development scholarship fund - created.