Several key rulings in 2023 showed why courts matter so much for enforcing and interpreting Colorado’s open government laws.
Movimiento Poder, a grassroots advocacy organization of Denver parents and students, asked to join in a lawsuit six news organizations filed against Denver Public Schools last week seeking the recording of a five-hour board of education executive session held the day after a shooting at East High School.
The Douglas County board of education isn’t the only Colorado school board recently accused of skirting the state’s sunshine laws. That’s why the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition made school board transparency the topic of its 2022 Sunshine Week panel.
Applying a seldom-used provision in the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), Denver Public Schools has asked a judge to determine whether it can disclose redacted portions of an outsider investigator’s report on sexual misconduct allegations against school board member Tay Anderson.
A Colorado Court of Appeals ruling in the Boulder Daily Camera’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado regents sets “a dangerous precedent that deprives the public of any meaningful oversight and input into the selection process of a public body’s chief executive,” says a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and 12 other organizations.
Will 2016 be remembered as the year we realized just how much our democracy depends on an informed citizenry? The fake news epidemic was one of many issues the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition highlighted in 2016 or wrote about on its blog.
Education researchers and advocates are worried that a newly formalized approval process will make it harder to get information needed to adequately evaluate existing K-12 programs and to recommend innovations.
The Jefferson County School District is finally preparing a policy for the retention of emails used for official business by board members and employees, more than nine months after Chalkbeat Colorado reported that the district has no such policy.
To help parents, teachers, students and taxpayers better understand how to use the Colorado Open Records Act and the state’s Open Meetings Law, the CFOIC and Chalkbeat Colorado teamed up to present a lively and informative panel discussion: “Transparency 101: How to exercise your rights to information and open meetings in your school district.”
