VOLUME 32 ISSUE

BY BRITTANY FREEMAN ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS

A Colorado House of Representatives committee narrowly voted April 13 to advance a bipartisan measure aimed at limiting homeowners associations’ powers to fi le foreclosure cases based on fi nes for community-rule violations, capping such penalties and increasing due process for homeowners.

Colorado law allows HOAs to seek judicial foreclosure against homeowners who are at the equivalent of six months behind on their routine dues, also known as assessments. But that total can include other charges, such as fi nes, late fees and collection costs — including the HOA’s legal fees.

As Rocky Mountain PBS and ProPublica reported last week, HOAs across the state have initiated more than 2,400 foreclosure cases — including those involving fi nes — from January 2018 through February 2022. Those cases continued during the pandemic, as HOAs were not subject to government moratoriums that prevented many mortgage lenders from foreclosing.

“It is absolutely heartbreaking to hear people losing their homes over fees,” said Rep. Edie Hooton, DBoulder, who voted in favor of the bill. “I would like to see some real meaningful progress on the HOA laws in Colorado.”

House Bill 22-1137 would not stop HOAs from seeking to foreclose against homeowners who are behind on their routine assessments but would prohibit foreclosures in situations where the association’s lien against the home consists only of fi nes or the costs of collecting them. The proposal would also prevent HOAs from charging daily fi nes and would cap penalties at $500 per violation, the bill’s sponsors said.

“One person came to us and told us about a fee that started out at $150 and ended up being $3,000. So it racks up pretty quickly and accumulates, and we want to stop that,” Rep. Naquetta Ricks, D-Aurora, one of the bill’s sponsors, told Rocky Mountain PBS and ProPublica. “If you buy your property and you’ve been paying your mortgage, and now you have a small violation or a fee, is it right for an HOA to be able to foreclose and kick you out of your home? No, it’s not right.”

The Transportation and Local Government committee heard testimony on the bill in early March but did not take a vote until April 13. In the interim, the bill’s sponsors met with community stakeholders, including those representing the HOA industry.

Representatives for the Community Associations Institute, a trade organization for HOAs and their managers, told Rocky Mountain PBS and ProPublica that they support the overall goal of eliminating foreclosures based solely on HOA fi nes. But they oppose several provisions of the current proposal, including the cap on fi nes, while hoping to fi nd common ground as the bill moves forward.

“This means that, if a homeowner wants to paint their house pink, has that request denied and does it anyway, the homeowner will be allowed to violate the rules for an extra $500.00 payment. The association’s only option to enforce the covenant will be to then take the owner to court. It’s better to levy a fi ne that actually makes breaking a rule unattractive,” said the Community Associations Institute’s Lindsay Smith, an HOA attorney.

The bill also requires HOAs to notify homeowners of delinquencies several times in different ways, including posting a notice on the home. HOA leaders have argued that such provisions could increase management costs. HOA homeowner advocate Stan Hrincevich said he disagrees with the argument that the proposal would result in increased costs for homeowners who pay on time, saying HOAs typically bill such costs directly to delinquent homeowners.

Rep. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, voted against the bill and told the committee that HOAs are run by volunteer boards, and that homeowners who disagree with the decisions being made in their community have the option of joining the board to change things. “This micromanages on such a microscopic level it’s actually quite incredible,” he said.

The committee passed the bill by a vote of 7-6, with several lawmakers pointing to the dozens of foreclosure cases fi led against homeowners in the Master Homeowners Association for Green Valley Ranch as a call to action.

“It is imperative that we address this problem,” said Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Greenwood Village, who added that the issue is at a “crisis point.”

The bill will still need to clear the full House and the Senate. EPA downgrades Colorado’s ozone problem to ‘severe’

After some HOAs gave out foreclosure notices in high numbers, the State Legislature has intervened, creating a bill that is moving forward. SHUTTERSTOCK

This story is from Rocky Mountain PBS, a nonprofi t public broadcaster providing community stories across Colorado over the air and online. Used by permission. For more, and to support Rocky Mountain PBS, visit rmpbs.org.

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Bill calls for better training, record keeping and limits on punishment

BY ERICA MELTZER AND JASON GONZALES CHALKBEAT COLORADO

Through more training for police who work in schools, more transparency around student discipline, and new limits on the use of handcuffi ng and seclusion rooms, advocates hope to see schools become safer and more supportive places, especially for students of color and those with disabilities.

A bill expected to be introduced in the Colorado House this week calls for signifi cantly more data collection, more public reports on school discipline practices, and fewer loopholes that allow Colorado school districts to essentially police themselves when it comes to seclusion and restraint.

Critically, the bill would give the Colorado Department of Education the authority to order school districts to correct their practices when they violate students’ rights.

The larger goals are to improve school climate and prevent students from entering the school-to-prison pipeline.

“We want to set kids up for success,” said Krista Spurgin, executive director of the Colorado chapter of Stand for Children, an advocacy organization. “If kids are constantly getting in trouble or being told they’re a troublemaker or even getting arrested, you start to see that cycle repeat itself.”

The bill makes three main changes.

• It would require the state education department to collect more data on school climate, student discipline, and law enforcement referrals and make that information easily accessible. The data would be broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, family income, English learner status, and disability status to make it easier to see which student groups are most affected by certain discipline practices. • It would limit the use of physical restraints and seclusion rooms. It would ban handcuffi ng students except in limited circumstances. It would require schools to document physical holds that last longer than a minute and prohibit using offi ces and broom closets for student seclusion. • It would set new standards for school resource offi cers, including that they have experience working with youth and want to work in schools. It would give school offi cials more say in evaluating offi cers’ performance and in which offi cers work in schools.

Advocates hope that by gathering more data and making it more publicly available, they can identify exemplary schools and schools that rely too much on suspensions, expulsions, and other discipline practices that can derail children’s school experience. This data could help develop new policies and direct resources, they said.

“Eventually we would like to get to a place where we have a vision for school and student success that includes a healthy school climate and provides a safe and supportive learning environment for all students,” said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign. “To get there, there are some steps that need to happen fi rst. We think this bill lays the foundation for this work that needs to come fi rst.”

The bill developed from conversations that started after a school discipline reform bill was withdrawn last year amid fi erce opposition from law enforcement and suburban school districts. But advocates insist this year’s effort is not a re-do. The effort was informed by statewide conversations last summer about improving school climate. Advocates tried to identify steps that would lead to concrete improvements without casting police as the problem or limiting how they do their job.

For example, last year’s bill included a long list of infractions that police would be prohibited from responding to when they occurred on school grounds. Instead, this year’s bill calls for a model policy for school resource offi cers, the recruitment of offi cers who want to work in schools, and roles for both school and police offi cials in evaluating school resource offi cers, rather than offi cers only reporting to their police supervisors.

Several of the bill’s provisions deal with the use of seclusion and restraint, practices that overwhelmingly affect students with disabilities.

State Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat and former school psychologist, said she doesn’t aim to ban seclusion or restraint. In her job, sometimes a child needed to be in a quiet room to calm down or an adult needed to place a child in a hold so they wouldn’t hurt themselves or another student.

“We just want to make sure they’re done appropriately so children are safe,” she said.

Young has worked on the bill with state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat who was a driving force behind last year’s withdrawn school discipline bill and 2020’s landmark police reform bill.

Young said this year’s bill should provide better defi nitions and clearer reporting requirements while still allowing fl exibility to respond to student behavior.

“We’re trying to make sure that we as a state are doing it in a way that we are reducing behaviors instead of increasing them,” Young said.

A 2017 law already requires school districts to conduct annual reviews of their use of seclusion, which means shutting a student in a room, and restraint, which the law defi ned as putting a student in a physical hold for more than fi ve minutes. But they don’t have to post that information publicly or share it with the Colorado Department of Education.

A Chalkbeat investigation found wide variations in how school districts tracked and reported this information. Some districts’ reviews were several pages long and full of data. Others were just a few sentences with no data at all. Even when districts included data, it was inconsistent. Some lumped seclusion and restraint together, while others separated them. Some reported holds that lasted less than fi ve minutes. Others didn’t.

And because districts don’t have to submit their annual reviews to any government agency, there is little oversight.

Even when the state found that districts were in violation of state rules, the state had no enforcement powers. The bill gives the state new enforcement powers to order corrective action plans and compensatory services for students and to monitor school districts that have ongoing problems.

Jennifer Levin, director of public policy for the ARC of Colorado, said many of the students who are placed in holds or closed in seclusion rooms aren’t able to tell their parents what happened. Parents see bruises or

A bill is reviewing school discipline practices in Colorado.

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© 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.

TRIVIA

1. U.S. PRESIDENTS: How many presidents have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? 2. MOVIES: Which Disney character’s catchphrase is “To infi nity and beyond!”? 3. GEOGRAPHY: How many permanently inhabited territories does the United States have? 4. MYTHOLOGY: What is the name of the Greek goddess of chance? 5. U.S. STATES: How many states call themselves commonwealths? 6. HISTORY: How many people worldwide were killed by the Black Death pandemic in the 1400s? 7. SCIENCE: What layer of air is closest to Earth in the atmosphere? 8. TELEVISION: Which animated TV comedy includes the fi ctional school Springfi eld Elementary? 9. ADVERTISING: A sales clerk named Lily

promotes which company in advertisements? 10. LITERATURE: George Smiley is a character in which 1974 novel?

Answers

1. Four. Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt 2. Buzz Lightyear, “Toy Story” 3. Five (American Samoa, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands) 4. Tyche 5. Four (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia) 6. Estimates range from 25 million to 200 million 7. Troposphere 8. “The Simpsons” 9. AT&T 10. “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (c) 2022 King Features Synd., Inc. Crossword Solution