SB 14-150: Colorado School Counselor Corps Grant Program

• Creates a School Counselor Corps Grant Program to fund education providers in increasing school-based counseling services in secondary schools (grades 7-12) to improve graduation rates and postsecondary education enrollment.

• Establishes a School Counselor Corps Advisory Board within the Department of Education to review grant applications and make recommendations based on criteria including dropout rates, remediation rates, low-income student enrollment, postsecondary enrollment rates, and first-generation college student enrollment.

• Requires grant recipients to implement comprehensive counseling models with time and effort assessments, postsecondary workforce-ready programming, social and emotional counseling, and data collection to demonstrate program impact on student achievement, attendance, and behavior.

• Authorizes annual grants up to $10 million with four-year terms beginning in the 2014-15 budget year, with a maximum of 3% of appropriated funds usable for program administration, professional development, training, and reporting activities.

• Appropriates $5,000,000 and 1.0 FTE to the Department of Education for fiscal year 2014-15 to implement the grant program.