Colorado § 24-33.5-2104 - School access for emergency response grant program - created - rules.

§ 24-33.5-2104. School access for emergency response grant program - created - rules.

(1) There is hereby created in the department in the office of school safety created in section 24-33.5-2702 the school access for emergency response grant program to provide grants to schools and public safety communications system owners to provide funding for needed interoperable communication hardware, software, equipment maintenance, and training to allow for seamless communications between new or existing school communications systems and first responder communications systems.

(2) Grant recipients may use the money received through the grant program for the following purposes:

(a) To deliver training programs to teach district-based security personnel and appropriate school personnel basic procedures for effective communications with first responders in an emergency;

(b) To implement an interoperable technology solution to provide or to upgrade the following:

(I) A system or technology that can be activated and deactivated by the public safety 911 answering point, the network administrator, and the school over both the radio system and other communications networks;

(II) Radio and other technology bridge ability that is nonradio vendor specific for connecting independent school networks across the school district and public safety networks in the region; and

(III) An interoperability solution that operates over radio networks and other communications networks;

(c) To maintain or improve a school's existing interoperable communication hardware or software or to provide interoperable communication hardware and software to a school that does not yet have it; and

(d) For any necessary radio system capacity expansions where school loading has been determined to have a significant impact on public safety system loading.

(3) The office of school safety created in section 24-33.5-2702 shall administer the grant program and, subject to available appropriations, shall award grants as provided in this part 21. Subject to available appropriations, grants must be paid out of the fund created in section 24-33.5-2107.

(4) The director or the director's designee, in consultation with the grant selection committee created in subsection (5) of this section, shall implement the grant program in accordance with this part 21. Pursuant to article 4 of this title 24, the director or the director's designee shall promulgate such rules as are required in this part 21 and such additional rules as may be necessary to implement the grant program. At a minimum, the rules must specify the time frames for applying for grants, the form of the grant program application, and the time frames for distributing grant money.

(5) There is hereby created the grant selection committee to work with the director or the director's designee to determine whether a grant applicant satisfies the criteria to receive a grant. The committee shall be composed of seven members appointed as specified in this subsection (5). The members of the committee shall serve without compensation; except that committee members shall not suffer any loss of salary while participating in the activities of the committee. Members of the committee shall meet as often as deemed necessary by the director or the director's designee to accomplish the work of the committee. Members of the committee shall be appointed on or before June 1, 2018, as follows:

(a) The chief information officer shall appoint one employee from the office;

(b) The speaker of the house of representatives shall appoint one person who represents urban or suburban school districts with interoperability experience in accordance with the school response framework;

(c) The president of the senate shall appoint one person who represents rural school districts with interoperability experience in accordance with the school response framework;

(d) The minority leader of the house of representatives shall appoint one person who represents the chiefs of police with interoperability experience in accordance with the school response framework;

(e) The minority leader of the senate shall appoint one person who represents county sheriffs with interoperability experience in accordance with the school response framework; and

(f) The director of the department of public safety shall appoint two employees from the department of public safety.

Source: L. 2018: Entire part added, (SB 18-158), ch. 214, p. 1362, § 1, effective May 16. L. 2023: (1) and (3) amended, (SB 23-241), ch. 120, p. 446, § 8, effective April 27.