Author: kdoran

Denver, Colorado – Tonight, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education voted to adopt a bell-to-bell cell phone policy for their full instructional day for every student in the district.

Stand for Children Colorado has been working alongside parents, educators, and community members across Colorado for more than a year to push for districtwide bell-to-bell/away-all-day cell phone policies.

Stand for Children Executive Director Krista Spurgin issued the following statement:

“DPS led one of the most collaborative, thoughtful processes we have seen to develop their cell phone policy for students. Their advisory committee of parents, educators, and community members spent months reviewing the research and developing a clear recommendation. They surveyed the community and heard back loud and clear — 76% of educators and 64% of the broader community supported a bell-to-bell policy.

The board listened, and tonight they acted.

Soon every DPS student will have a school day free from the nonstop distraction phones are designed to create. That matters for their mental health, their friendships, and their ability to learn. This is what teachers and the community asked for. And the DPS board delivered.”

Other districts in Colorado with bell-to-bell policies include: Boulder Valley School District, Boulder Valley (went into effect in January 2025), Mesa D51 (just passed), Westminster (just passed).

Stand for Children Colorado advances solutions that increase opportunities for families, historically furthest from privilege, through meaningful partnerships with families, educators, schools, and policymakers. 

During the Denver Public Schools Board of Education work session today, the board adjusted their cell phone policy language to prohibit student use of “personal communication devices during the instructional school day while in school buildings,” with devices out of sight and turned off. They made other adjustments and revised policy should be available soon, but the board signaled their commitment to a phone-free-school day for students. Stand for Children Executive Director, Krista Spurgin issued the following statement:

“DPS led one of the most collaborative, thoughtful processes we have seen to develop their cell phone policy for students. They are on track to adopt a policy that gives students a school day free from the nonstop distraction phones are designed to create. That matters for their mental health, their friendships, and their ability to learn. This is what teachers and the community asked for and the DPS board is on track to deliver.”  

The DPS board created the Communication Devices Advisory Committee, a group of parentes, educators, and others who spent months developing a clear, research-aligned recommendation: a districtwide bell-to-bell policy keeping phones away for the entire school day. The district also surveyed the community about cell phone use in schools and found strong support for away-all-day policies.  76% of educators and 64% of the broader community support a bell-to-bell phone policy.

Stand for Children Colorado Executive Director Krista Spurgin has an op-ed in the Denver Post making the case for bell-to-bell cell phone policies in Colorado schools.

Every school district in Colorado must adopt a cell phone policy by July 1, 2026. Krista’s piece explains why the type of policy matters just as much as having one. Instructional-time-only restrictions feel like a reasonable middle ground, but they leave students with phone access during lunch and passing periods, where distraction, social conflict, and addictive algorithms continue to cause harm.

Bell-to-bell policies, phones off and away for the entire school day, produce real results. Schools that have adopted them report more instructional time, fewer behavioral disruptions, and stronger peer relationships. A ninth grader in Boulder Valley, where schools went bell-to-bell in January 2025, told us her mental health, focus, and friendships have all improved.

The July 1 deadline is close. Read Krista’s full op-ed in the Denver Post and then visit our action center to see what you can do.

Pueblo School District 60 is writing its cell phone policy right now, and that means the next few days matter.

If we want students to be able to focus on what matters most at school — learning, connecting with teachers, and building healthy peer relationships — it’s important that district leaders hear from the community.

Here are two things you can do today:

1. Take the D60 community survey (closes May 1).
   D60 convened a committee to research and help shape its cell phone policy and is now asking families and community members for input. Your response will help inform the committee’s final recommendation to the school board.
2. Call for an “off and away‑all‑day” phone‑free policy in your feedback.

Research and school experience show that keeping phones put away for the full school day supports student learning, improves focus, reduces distractions and conflict, and benefits students’ mental health.

The survey is brief, can be completed on your phone, and closes tomorrow. Please take a moment today to share your perspective and urge D60 to adopt a strong, off and away all‑day phone‑free policy that puts students first.

Thank you for speaking up for Pueblo students.

We have an update on the Douglas County cell phone policy. This week, the school board passed a policy that falls short of what we asked for and what students deserve. Elementary and middle schoolers will have phone-free school days. High schoolers will not.

The high school policy allows phone use during passing periods and lunch, which research tells us undermines the full benefit of a phone-free school day and means teachers end up policing cell phones for the first 15 minutes of class time. 

We are disappointed. And we know many of you are too.

But before we say anything else, we want to say this: thank you. Over 400 of you emailed the board, completed the survey, and signed petitions. You showed up for Douglas County kids. That matters, even when the outcome is not what we hoped for.

Here is what we want you to know: this work is bigger than one district.

We will also be exploring a statewide solution with policymakers that would set a stronger standard for every school, including high schools. We will keep pushing for policies that protect every student, every hour of the school day. We will keep you updated as that work moves forward. We are not done fighting for Douglas County high schoolers and we know you aren’t either.

HB26- 1017 Criminal Restitution Prohibited for Insurers would change how criminal restitution works by removing insurance companies from the definition of a “victim” for restitution purposes. Under the bill, insurers could no longer collect restitution through the criminal courts when they suffer losses; instead, they could pursue those losses through civil lawsuits against offenders if necessary. This bill passed the House Judiciary Committee on February 3rd, 7-4.

Colorado’s restitution system was created to help victims recover, not to trap families in cycles of poverty after someone has already served their sentence. Yet large portions of restitution payments can go to insurance companies instead of directly to victims, turning a tool for healing into long-term financial punishment that follows people long after incarceration. HB26-1017 takes a common-sense step by prioritizing real victims over corporate reimbursement so restitution works the way it was intended.

Research and reporting have shown that restitution debt is one of the biggest barriers to successful reentry. People leaving incarceration already face steep odds, including housing barriers, limited employment opportunities, supervision fees, and the cost of rebuilding their lives. When restitution functions like lifelong debt collection rather than repair, it delays stability and increases the likelihood that someone falls back into the system. Public safety improves when people can work, support their families, and reintegrate, not when they are buried in unpayable debt. Below is the prepared testimony of one of our partners in this work, Kyle Giddings, Deputy Director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

Mr. Chair, members of the committee,

My name is Kyle Giddings. I’m the Deputy Director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and I’m here today to urge a yes vote on 1017.

In 2013, after years of struggling with addiction, I ended up in the criminal legal system. I took responsibility for my actions and pled guilty in my case. After that plea, I was ordered to pay $78 thousand dollars in restitution—not to a direct victim, but to an insurance company.

I accepted that obligation. I started paying.

One year later, I received a letter from the court informing me that my remaining balance would begin accruing 12 percent interest until it was fully paid—interest that thankfully dropped to 8 percent in 2019, but only after years of compounding damage.

I have been paying restitution since 2013. As of today, I have paid $54 thousand dollars toward that obligation.

In interest alone, I now owe an additional $64 thousand dollars

That means my total remaining balance is $88 thousand dollars—more than I originally owed—after more than a decade of making payments.

I am one of the lucky ones. I have a stable job. I get to advocate for my community and for people impacted by the criminal justice system. Even after a $1,100 monthly wage garnishment, I can still afford my apartment and feed my family.

But it is not easy. And it gets harder every year.

But I am still one of the lucky ones. Not everyone leaving incarceration is as fortunate as I have been.

It’s time for Colorado to join states like Louisiana and Massachusetts and show there is a meaningful difference between compensating a natural person who was harmed and reimbursing a corporation designed to manage risk, and stop using the state for corporate debt collections.

Stand for Children Associate Executive Director, Bri Buentello testified in opposition to HB26-1050, Optional Individualized Readiness Plan for School before the House Education Committee this week. Stand for Children Colorado testified against HB26-1050 because it would eliminate critical social-emotional monitoring for kindergarteners who appear academically ready but may still struggle with classroom skills like self-regulation and peer collaboration. The bill would also create unfair workload reductions primarily in affluent districts, incentivizing teachers to leave under-resourced schools where student needs and workload remain high. The bill passed the Education Committee 10-3 and will be considered by the full House next. Below is the prepared testimony.

“Thank you, Madam Chair Lukens, and members of the committee. My name is Bri Buentello, and I am the Associate Executive Director for Stand for Children Colorado.

We are here today to testify in respectful opposition to HB26-1050.

While we share this committee’s commitment to addressing teacher workload, we believe this bill treats the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) as a hurdle to be cleared rather than what it truly is: a vital blueprint for a child’s long-term success.

The KRA is one of our most powerful tools because it doesn’t just look at literacy; it looks at the whole child. It assesses social-emotional development, physical well-being, and executive functioning. These are the ‘readiness to learn’ skills—like self-regulation and peer collaboration—that dictate whether a child can actually thrive in a classroom environment.

By exempting students from Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) based on narrow academic benchmarks, we risk ignoring these critical social-emotional indicators. A child may be ‘on track’ with their letters, but if the KRA shows they are struggling with the social transitions of school, they still need the roadmap an ILP provides to ensure they stay on track.

The data shows us why this intentionality is so important. In Denver, roughly 61% of K-2 students are currently identified as ‘on track’ for third-grade reading. However, when those same students reach the third-grade CMAS assessment, only 42% are meeting state expectations.

There is a clear disconnect between being ‘on track’ in the early years and meeting expectations in third grade. If we remove the ILP requirement for students who seem fine on day one, we are removing the very monitoring system designed to prevent them from falling behind later.

We must also address the equity implications for our educators. Because student readiness scores are often tied to socioeconomic status, this bill creates a ‘workload windfall’ primarily for teachers in affluent districts. We are concerned this will inadvertently incentivize teachers to leave our most under-resourced schools—where the workload will remain high—for wealthier districts where the compliance burden is waived. We cannot support a policy that further tilts the scales against our high-needs communities.

Colorado’s ILP process is a national model for flexibility. We should be using the KRA data to deepen our support for students, not as a justification for doing less. Every child deserves a plan for growth, and every parent should have the choice to maintain that plan.

We respectfully urge a ‘no’ vote on HB26-1050. Thank you.”