A legislative effort to raise the minimum age Colorado children can be criminally charged was all but killed Wednesday after being downgraded to a task force to study potentially raising the age in the future.

As drafted, House Bill 1131 would have removed children aged 10, 11 and 12 from the juvenile court’s jurisdiction, increasing the age for prosecution from 10 to 13 years old, except when a child is suspected of committing murder or felony sexual assault. The bill would have also increased the minimum age when a child can be tried as an adult from 12 to 14 years old.

After Wednesday’s amendment, the bill would only create a task force in charge of developing recommendations for how to better serve 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds who commit crimes without putting them in the criminal justice system.

“We’re still posing the question and tasking people into being able to answer it,” said Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, who is sponsoring the bill. “Regardless of what we may feel today, these are questions that we all deserve as a community, as a state, as policy makers, to help us answer so that we are not making decisions down the line where we do not have responses, data and insights to rely on.”

The amendment came after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern about the original bill, questioning whether not criminally charging younger children would prevent them from accessing needed resources like court-mandated therapy. The original bill would have gone into effect in 2024, allowing just over a year to figure this out.

Though the amended bill won the approval of most Democrats, Republicans remained in firm opposition. On Thursday, the House passed the bill in a 37-26 vote, with all Republican representatives and three Democrats voting against the bill.

Opponents disapproved of the bill’s intention to move towards eventually increasing the minimum age for criminally charging children.

“We’re talking thousands of serious offenses that a juvenile between 10 and 13 could be committing,” said Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta. “That’s what was proposed under the original bill. I do find that it’s troubling.”

In Colorado, an average of 525 children between 10 and 12 years old are charged with crimes each year, according to state estimates. Of those, around three are charged with felonies, 64 are charged with misdemeanors, 446 are charged with juvenile delinquency and 12 are charged with traffic offenses. The average length of stay in Colorado’s juvenile detention centers is 17 months, according to state data.

Supporters of the bill said children should not have to face the trauma and potentially life-altering consequences of an arrest to get support, saying the criminal justice system doesn’t address root causes of juvenile crime. One study found that up to 90% of people in the juvenile justice system have experienced trauma, including high rates of physical or sexual abuse.

Arrested children are more likely to be arrested as adults, less likely to graduate high school, more likely to be unemployed and face a higher risk of violence and sexual abuse while in detention, Bacon said. Children of color are also arrested at disproportionately high rates. From 2012 to 2020, Black children made up less than 7% of Colorado’s 10 to 12 year old population, but made up 20% of those detained, according to state data.

“We should be looking at, what are we doing? Why are kids committing crimes when they’re 10 or 11 or 12 years old? And how do we as a society fix that?” said Rep. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, who voted in support of the bill. “I don’t believe that’s by running them through the criminal justice system.”

The amended bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration in the coming weeks.