The Arc of Colorado 2019 Legislative Scorecard A Letter from Our Executive Director: Dear Members of The Arc Community, Once again, I would like to thank each of you for your part in a successful legislative session. We rely on your expertise in the field. We rely on you for our strength in numbers. For all the ways you contributed this session, we are deeply appreciative. I would like to give a special thanks to those that came and testified on our behalf; Stephanie Garcia, Carol Meredith, Linda Skafflen, Shelby Lowery, Vicki Wray, Rowan Frederiksen, and many others who I may not have mentioned here. This session was a historic one. For the first time in 75 years, one party had control of the house, senate, and governor’s office. Additionally, there were 43 new legislators! We enjoyed a productive year in which The Arc of Colorado monitored 100 bills. Of those that we supported, 92% were signed by the governor and 100% of the bills that we opposed died. This high success rate means that individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families will have more opportunity to better live, work, learn, and play in their Colorado communities, with increased support. We are excited about many of this year’s outcomes. In a very tight budget year, the Joint Budget Committee was able to free up money for 150 additional slots for the Developmental Disabilities waiver waitlist. After three years of involvement, we finally saw the passing of HB19-1194, which places restrictions on suspensions and expulsions of children from preschool, through to second grade. Children with disabilities are disproportionately suspended in the school system and we hope that the passage of this bill provides meaningful change in terms of equity. We also hope that it encourages therapeutic alternatives to traditional forms of punishment. These, and many more bills passed this session and we can each be proud of many changes made at the legislature. Some bills did die and more still await unveiling in January of 2020. We are so excited and energized for another year of legislation and we are even more energized knowing that we will be surrounded by excellent partners. We at The Arc of Colorado hope that you will use this scorecard to reach out to your legislators and thank them for the work that they do. We hope that you will tell them about issues that are important to you and most of all, we hope to see you at the Capitol next session! With Gratitude, Christiano Sosa 1 A Note on Process This legislative session, The Arc had over 100 bills that we monitored and 51 bills that we supported. However, best practices dictate that in making a legislative scorecard, only bills that were voted on by the House of Representatives and the Senate should be included. Therefore, any bills that did not meet these requirements were removed. From there, we chose bills we felt most accurately represented the state of intellectual and developmental disability related legislation with regards to our policy agenda. The resulting 5 bills allow constituents to see how their legislators voted. From there, we calculated the percentage of votes that coincided with our position of support for each of the legislatures. If a legislator was absent, this did not count against their percentage score. Each legislator was then given an A-F rating, scoring them on how often they voted in accordance with the position of The Arc of Colorado. However, as we have five bills on this scorecard, the grade has been “bumped up” to reflect the previous inability of anyone who had voted on all 5 bills to receive a “C” rating. Thus, those with a 60% rating receive a C, those with a 40% rating receive a D, and those with a 20% rating receive an F. The scoring interval breaks down as follows: 0-20%: F 21-40%: D 41-60%: C 61-80%: B 81-100%: A A Note on the Intended Use of this Scorecard This scorecard is not intended to manipulate votes or to provide a complete history of the work of these legislators. It is our intention that constituents be able to look to this scorecard to see how their legislators voted this session. With this information, constituents may contact their representatives and express their interests and needs. Bills We Scored: Out of all of the bills that we supported strongly during this legislative session, we chose to include the following: HB19-1194, HB19-1045, HB19-1223, SB19-222 and SB19-223. It is our mission to ensure that all people have moral and civil rights 2 providing them with opportunities to love, work, play, learn and worship in communities where they choose to live. All people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have inherent value with individual strengths and abilities, are equal before the law and must be treated with dignity and respect. The following bills most strongly supported our mission and policy agenda for the 2019 Colorado Legislative Session. Bill descriptions are not exhaustive. For full descriptions of each bill, please visit: http://leg.colorado.gov/bills • HB19-1194: This bill, "School Discipline for Preschool through Second Grade" had four prime sponsors, Representatives Susan Lontine and Colin Larson, and Senators Kevin Priola and Rhonda Fields. This bill sets limitations on suspensions and expulsions for children in pre-school, through to second grade, for children in state-funded, community-based preschool, school district, or charter schools. The bill also requires the state board to perform an annual review of data on suspensions and expulsions of students in preschool, kindergarten, first, and second grade. • HB19-1045: This bill, "Office of Public Guardianship Operation Conditions" had three prime sponsors, Senator Joanne Ginal and Representatives Marc Snyder and Matt Soper. The bill removes a previous condition requiring the commission and director of the Office of Public Guardianship to wait to carry out certain duties until the cash fund has received the 1.7 million dollars in gifts, grants, and donations. • HB19-1223: This bill, “Social Security Disability Application Assistance” had three prime sponsors, Senator Faith Winter and Representatives Dafna Michaelson Jenet and Colin Larson. The bill would allow participating counties to fund staff to help individuals currently enrolled in the Colorado Aid to the Needy and Disabled Program to apply for Social Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance. • SB19-222 This bill, "Individuals At Risk of Institutionalization" had four prime sponsors, Senators Pete Lee and Tammy Story and Representatives Daneya Esgar and Lois Landgraf. The bill is an effort at prevention to help the state in the crisis of competency that we have recently seen. Amongst other things, it requires the department of health care policy and financing to develop measurable outcomes to monitor efforts to prevent individuals on Medicaid from becoming part of the criminal justice system. It also requires the department to make a determination considering the addition of a possible waiver aimed at providing services for those with severe mental health problems. 3 • SB19-223: This bill, "Actions Related to Competency to Proceed” had four prime sponsors, Senators Pete Lee and Robert “Bob” Gardner, and Representative Mike Weissman and Lois Landgraf. The bill clarifies and expedites various elements of the competency procedure that is enacted after the question of competency is raised for a particular defendant. The bill also directs the department of human services to engage in multiple measures with the hopes of bettering tackle issues surrounding competency. Again, these bill descriptions are not exhaustive. For details on the parts and procedures of each bill, please visit: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills and read the bill texts in full. House Vote Count House HB19-1194 HB19-1223 HB19-1045 SB19-222 SB19-223 Jeni James Arndt (D) Y Y Y Y Y Mark Baisley (R) N N N Y Y KC Becker (D) Y Y Y Y Y Susan Beckman (R) N N Y Y Y Adrienne Benavidez (D) Y Y Y Y Y Shannon Bird (D) Y Y Y Y Y Rod Bockenfeld (R) N Y Y Y Y Perry Buck (R) N N N Y Y Janet Buckner (D) Y Y Y Y Y Bri Buentello (D) Y Y Y Y Y Yadira Caraveo (D) Y Y Y A A Terri Carver (R) N Y Y Y Y Marc Catlin (R) N N Y Y Y James Coleman (D) Y Y Y Y Y Lisa Cutter (D) Y Y Y Y Y Monica Duran (D) Y Y Y Y Y Daneya Esgar (D) Y Y N Y Y Tony Exum (D) Y Y Y Y Y Meg Froelich (D) Y Y Y Y Y Rochelle Galindo (D) Y Y Y Y Y Alec Garnett (D) Y Y Y Y Y Tim Geitner (R) N N N Y Y Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez (D) Y Y Y Y Y 4 House HB19-1194 HB19-1223 HB19-1045 HB19-222 HB19-223 Matt Gray (D) Y Y Y Y Y Chris Hansen (D) Y Y Y Y Y Leslie Herod (D) Y Y Y Y Y Edie Hooton (D) Y Y Y Y Y Stephen Humphrey (R) N N N Y N Dominique Jackson (D) Y Y Y A A Sonya Jaquez-Lewis (D) Y Y Y Y Y Chris Kennedy (D) Y Y Y Y Y Cathy Kipp (D) Y Y Y Y Y Tracy Kraft-Tharp (D) Y Y Y Y Y Lois Landgraf (R) N Y Y Y Y Colin Larson (R) Y Y Y Y Y Kimmi Lewis (R) N N N Y N Larry Liston (R) N A Y Y Y Susan Lontine (D) Y Y Y Y Y Julie McCluskie (D) Y Y Y Y Y Hugh McKean (R) Y Y Y Y Y Barbara McLachlan (D) Y Y Y Y Y Jovan Melton (D) Y Y Y Y Y Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D) Y Y Y Y Y Kyle Mullica (D) Y Y Y Y Y Patrick Neville (R) N N N Y Y Rod Pelton (R) N N N Y Y Kim Ransom (R) N N N Y Y Janice Rich (R) N Y Y Y Y Dylan Roberts (D) Y Y Y Y Y Lori Saine (R) N N N Y N Shane Sandridge (R) N Y N Y Y Jonathan Singer (D) Y Y Y Y Y Emily Sirota (D) Y Y Y Y Y Marc Snyder (D) Y Y Y Y Y Matt Soper (R) N Y A Y Y Tom Sullivan (D) Y Y Y Y Y Kerry Tipper (D) Y Y Y Y Y Brianna Titone (D) Y Y Y Y Y Donald Valdez (D) Y Y