A panel that delves into youth issues in Colorado has introduced six draft bills for the 2025 legislative session, including proposals that delve into increasing literacy and tackling drug overdoses. 

Three of the proposals from Colorado Youth Advisory Council will be brought before the General Assembly with the potential to become laws.

Established in 2008 through House Bill 1157, the council is a group of 40 members, consisting of one student aged 14-19 from each of the 35 Senate Districts, representatives from the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Tribes, and three non-voting at-large members. Five legislators also serve on the council to advise students and review their proposed legislation during the interim. 

The council meets three times during the interim period — twice in August and once in October. During the second meeting of the summer, students presented their proposed legislation, outlining the issue they aim to address, their solutions, and how they plan to fund them.

After the presentations, the five legislators voted on which six proposals would move forward to be drafted as bills. The six draft proposals will be narrowed down to three, which will then be introduced as actual bills next year. 

Several bills proposed by COYAC have become law, including last session’s House Bill 1039, which requires school personnel to call students by their “chosen” names. Under the new law, intentionally refusing would deemed as discriminatory and potentially subject to a federal federal civil rights complaint.

The group also successfully pushed for House Bill 1009, which created the Secondary School Student Substance Use Committee within the Department of Education. 

Here are the six bills the group has proposed, some of which received support from both Republicans and Democrats on the panel.  

Accessibility in school buildings

Kate Glover’s experience using a wheelchair opened her eyes to the accessibility challenges at her high school in Fort Collins, as well as other schools across the state.

The 16-year-old recounted how the entrance doors at her school are so heavy that she can’t open them without help, and the electronic equipment to automatically open the doors didn’t work for the entire school year.

Glover said the issues at her high school are not unique.

“Two-thirds of U.S. public school districts have schools with physical barriers that may limit access for people with disabilities,” she said. “Barriers such as a lack of accessible door hardware and steep ramps can make it challenging for students, teachers, and others with disabilities to use public school facilities.”

Glover said students with mobility-related disabilities can’t take music classes at a school in Denver because the classroom they’re held in is completely inaccessible. As a student-athlete, Glover had to change into her practice clothes and uniform in her car because the walkways in the locker room are too narrow for her wheelchair to pass through.

“Every student should have reliable access to their school facility, yet this is not the case in Colorado,” she said. 

Glover’s proposal calls for the introduction of a state-run audit program to ensure all schools in the state are ADA compliant. And if a school is found to be out of compliance, they will be required to develop a transition plan, Glover said.  

Glover also advocated for schools to provide detailed accessibility information on their websites, such as the location of accessible entrances and the availability of features, such as elevators, chair lifts and door-opening hardware.  

“Schools of all types across the state fail to provide crucial and comprehensive information about accessibility,” Glover said. “While able-bodied students are able to evaluate schools, and quickly sign up for classes, clubs, and activities, a lack of accessibility disclosures prevents disabled students from doing the same.”

All five legislators on the committee voted to draft a bill based on Glover’s proposal. 

Increasing health literacy for youth 

Seventeen-year-old Ranye Ezenekwe of Westminster highlighted what she described as disparities in health education among students in Colorado by referencing a study conducted by the University of North Carolina, which found that children enrolled in schools “lacking in health resources and teacher support” were more likely to experience poor physical and mental health outcomes. 

“Across Colorado, youth are not equitably provided with the ability or knowledge to navigate our complex healthcare system, and simply communicating with doctors can prove difficult,” said Ezenekwe.  “This discrepancy is linked to society’s failure to emphasize health literacy among teens.”

Health education faces one of the highest teacher shortage rates in the state, Ezenekwe said.

While the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, a comprehensive analysis of the health and wellbeing of young people in the state, includes topics like mental health, car safety, and sexual health, it doesn’t specifically assess health literacy, which Ezenekwe and her colleagues define as the degree to which people have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. 

COYAC’s proposal to boost health literacy among Colorado youth includes establishing a “Health Literacy Oversight Panel,” which would be responsible for identifying health literacy gaps among Colorado youth and collaborating with organizations, health professionals, and schools to implement health literacy resources in school-based health centers. These resources would cover concepts, such as medical insurance, medical records, and how to find doctors and specialists.

“While school-based health centers currently offer school-wide health promotion activities, strengthening health literacy learning ensures that education, and not just medical treatment, becomes a priority,” Ezenekwe said. These centers, which offer medical services like wellness exams, immunizations, and oral health screenings, are funded by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment or through local and independent sources. 

The proposal garnered support from the council’s three Democratic members, Sens. Janice Marchman of Loveland and Faith Winter of Westminster and Rep. Stephanie Vigil of Colorado Springs, while the two Republican members, Sen. Janice Rich of Grand Junction and Rep. Ron Weinberg of Loveland, voted against it. 

Funding solar panels for schools

Alex Fabbri, a 17-year-old from Jefferson County, proposed a bill to establish a pay-by-performance program that would allow schools to own and operate solar panels on their properties. 

Fabbri said the program would be similar to a power purchase agreement (PPA) but with a key difference — schools would obtain no-interest loans from the state or private companies to cover installation costs.

They would repay these loans using the savings from reduced energy expenses and eventually own the panels, making them eligible to earn Renewable Energy Credits. Additionally, some schools might qualify for grants to assist with the solar panel installation.

Fabbri cited a 2023 report from the Public Utilities Commission that found electricity prices increased 25% from the previous year. He also said that the cost of natural gas in his district has doubled from 2020-2023, despite usage going down. 

“Unlike private homes or businesses, which can combat these rising prices by installing more reliable, lower-priced options, such as solar, public schools don’t have the resources to implement such options even though they have been proven to lower electricity bills for schools,” Fabbri said, adding that installing solar panels on school grounds would help the state achieve it’s goal to reduce 90% of 2005 emissions by 2050. 

Fabbri highlighted a California school district’s success in reducing its energy costs by 90% by implementing energy-efficient heating and cooling systems and installing solar panels, made possible by the state’s Proposition 39, which passed in 2012.  

“Schools can act as power batteries for their communities,” said Fabbri, citing a conversation with Mike Kruger of the Colorado Solar and Storage Association. “In case of an emergency such as a power outage, schools can be reliable spaces for power. (Kruger) also mentioned that utility companies could use the power from the batteries during the day, and a portion of the installations could be paid by local utility companies.”

The three Democrats on the council voted to pass the legislation on to the drafting state; the two Republicans voted against it. 

Adding youth representatives to the Environmental Justice Advisory Board 

Sophie Tipper, a 16-year-old from Arapahoe County, proposed adding two youth members aged 14-19 to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board.

One of these members would be required to be from a “disproportionately impacted community,” as, according to Tipper, the communities that “face the effects of the climate crisis most acutely are often home to low-income families and people of color.” 

Tipper argued that since young people are generally more likely to believe in climate change than older generations, they deserved representation on the board.

“While this board is a helpful instrument in addressing issues of environmental justice, the advisory board is devoid of any youth perspective or input, which creates a significant deficiency as youth voices are some of the most powerful in the face of the climate crisis,” she said. 

Tipper’s proposal was combined with a similar initiative by Ashna Shah of Superior, who suggested creating a renewable energy conference specifically for young people, funded through grants. Shah said the conference would include testimony from government departments, such as the health and energy departments, as well as independent organizations about the transition to renewable energy. 

“This would allow young people who are involved with environmental, climate, or energy issues to gain insight into energy production from those with multiple viewpoints on the issue to provide their perspective on the future of climate policy, be empowered to take action in their communities, and be involved in a solution to the pressing climate crisis,” she said. 

Winter suggested that rather than establishing a new conference, Shah and Tipper could consider asking the Colorado Renewable Energy Society to create a youth-focused a segment within their own annual conference. 

Reducing food waste in schools 

Cate Preece, 17, of Arapahoe County, proposed a solution to help reduce food waste in schools, which she said results in nearly $2 billion in losses nationwide each year. 

According to Preece and her cohorts, many students have no other choice but to throw away uneaten food because composting companies refuse to accept food from schools, and “share tables” — where students can leave unwanted food for others — are not commonly used due to concerns about allergies and food spoiling. Additionally, some students simply don’t realize they can recycle food or don’t understand the “environmental impacts of food waste, Preece said. 

Preece suggested the state implement a pilot grant program to provide funding for schools to pay staff members to manage “share tables” and composting bins in their schools with a team of students. 

“With state-funded employees to support them, students can help them monitor lunch rooms and empower students to protect the environment,” the COYAC report said. “This program would feed hungry students, keep waste out of landfills, empower students, and save money on waste removal.”

The proposal passed with a 3-2 party-line vote. 

Distributing naloxone to prevent overdoses 

“My town would be nothing without its youth, and I truly mean it,” he said, as young people often help out at their parents’ farms, work at local businesses, and coach younger kids in sports.

“Our community truly depends on our youth, and if one were to die, let’s say from an opioid overdose, the community would without undoubtedly fall apart on itself,” he said. 

While Hollywood said he loves living in a small town, he admitted that there’s not always much to do, which sometimes leads teens to experiment with drugs. 

“Every day, students literally ditch class to go do drugs in the cornfield that’s next to my high school,” he said, mentioning the recent overdose deaths of a 16-year-old girl in Greeley and a student in Colorado Springs, who died of an overdose in the middle of class after. Both teens unknowingly took pills laced with fentanyl.

While naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses and commonly known as Narcan, is available to all Colorado schools for bulk purchase, its cost — $35 to $65 per dose — can make it too expensive for small districts to afford. Additionally, other places teens frequent, like coffee shops and local businesses, aren’t eligible for the bulk fund. 

According to Hollywood and his colleagues Rohan Kotwal and Irene Kim, rural communities face significantly higher rates of opioid overdoses. Las Animas County saw 48.6 overdose deaths per 100,000 people, while Denver County saw 35.5 deaths per 100,000 people. 

“These statistics exemplify the greater need for Narcan distribution in our rural counties,” said Hollywood. “Our complacency here in our state Capitol is allowing for the continuation of this horrible opioid epidemic and therefore the deaths of thousands of Coloradans who may have been somebody’s child, somebody’s student, or somebody’s sibling.”

Hollywood, Kotwal and Kim’s solution is twofold: include naloxone in the automated external defibrillator (AED) cases at secondary schools, and introduce funding for local businesses to distribute naloxone to the public. 

“Because AED cabinets are required in secondary public schools, this infrastructure allows for a platform to ensure access across the state to naloxone,” said Kim, who said this model has proven successful in a number of other states, such as Rhode Island and Illinois. 

According to Kotwal, he and his colleagues have considered using funding from the Colorado Health Institute, the Naloxone Bulk Fund, and opioid settlement funds, which are expected to exceed $787 million, according to the Attorney General’s Office. 

Four council members voted to draft the bill, while Weinberg voted against it. 

The Youth Advisory council will meet next on Oct. 1.