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Our Work
The role of the COYAC is to:
- Advise state legislators on issues most relevant to youth
- Build relationships between youth and elected leaders
- Develop policy recommendations for consideration at the legislature’s Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee (summer interim committee)
- Educate students about the critical skills of civil discourse and provide them with opportunities to practice those
skills
Each year, the COYAC teens choose policy priorities to examine, evaluate, and recommend. The students generate the policy priorities and recommendations. They discuss dozens of problems they experience as teenagers, divide themselves into committees to narrow their focus, and conduct research and outreach. The policy memos they present during the interim committee are the students’ viewpoints, research, outreach, and writing.
COYAC’s contracted staff is nonpartisan and policy agnostic. Staff supports the students similarly to the way Legislative Council staff supports the legislators, providing training on government 101, planning, and logistics.
COYAC members each bring three one-sentence problem statements to share at our August retreat.
Policy Recommendations and Interim Committee
2023-2024 Proposals
On August 1, August 15, and October 1, 2024, COYAC members met with the legislators of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee to present and discuss the students’ policy proposals. (Listen live or to recordings of the meetings.) The legislators could recommend up to six proposals to become draft bills with fiscal notes and could refer up to three bills for introduction at the 2025 legislative session. The 2023-24 COYAC cohort created eight policy proposals:
- Increasing Accessibility in School Buildings
- Increasing Health Literacy for Youth
- Piloting Innovative Options for School Transportation
- Funding Solar Panels for Schools
- Adding Youth Representatives to the Environmental Justice Advisory Board inspired SB25-055 Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice
- Educating Youth on the Transition to Renewable Energy
- Reducing Food Waste in Schools inspired HB25-1059 Food Waste Reduction in Public Schools
- Distributing Naloxone to Prevent Overdoses inspired SB25-164 Opioid Antagonist Availability & State Board of Health
2022-2023 Proposals
On August 9, August 17, and October 25, 2023, COYAC members met with the legislators of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee to present and discuss the student’s policy proposals. (Listen live or to recordings of the meetings.) The legislators could recommend up to six proposals to become draft bills with fiscal notes and could refer up to three bills for introduction at the 2024 legislative session. The 2022-23 COYAC cohort created six policy proposals:
- Youth Mental Health: Efforts to Increase the Number of Licensed Psychologists for Youth inspired HB24-1049 School Mental Health Professionals Loan Repayment Program
- Violence Against Youth: Prevention, Intervention, and Response in Colorado Schools
- Asian-American History: Diversity & Representation in Education
- Resource Assistance in Public Schools inspired HB 24-1164 Free Menstrual Products to Students
- Non-Legal Name Changes in Schools for Youth Ages 12-17 inspired HB24-1039 Non-Legal Name Changes, which became law
- Youth Gender-Affirming Care: Ensuring Widespread Provider Training and Knowledge inspired HB 24-1040 Gender-Affirming Health-Care Provider Study, and legislators funded the idea in another bill
2021-2022 Proposals
2023 Bill Signing Ceremony for SB23-014 Disordered Eating Prevention
On August 5, August 19, and September 30, 2022, COYAC members met with the legislators of the legislators of the 2022 Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee . The legislators could recommend up to six proposals to become draft bills with fiscal notes and could refer up to three bills for introduction at the 2023 legislative session. The 2021-22 COYAC members presented seven policy proposals:
- Disciplinary Equity in Education: Co-Creation and Accountability in Restorative
Planning inspired SB23-029 Disproportionate Discipline In Public Schools, which became law - Increasing Completion of Financial Aid Applications
- Increasing the Number of Licensed Psychologists for Youth
- Reforming Intervention Response to Substance Abuse in Secondary Schools inspired HB23-1009 Secondary School Student Substance Use, which became law
- Youth Participation in Updating Educational Standards inspired SB23-008 Youth Involvement Education Standards Review, which became law
- Youth Public Health: Eating Disorders and Weight Discrimination inspired SB23-014 Disordered Eating Prevention, which became law
- Youth Sexual Health: HIV Education and Prevention
2020-2021 Proposals
COYAC members Taleen Sample and Aimee Resnick hold pens from Governor Polis after the bill signing for HB 22-1052 Promoting Crisis Services To Students
On August 16 and September 3, 2021, COYAC members presented three policy proposals at the legislature’s Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee. The legislators on the committee recommended all three proposals to become draft bills with fiscal notes.
- Youth Mental Health inspired HB 22-1052 Promoting Crisis Services To Students, which became law
- Foster Care Youth Education Waivers inspired SB 22-008 Higher Education For Foster Youth, which became law
- COYAC legislation inspired SB 22-014 Colorado Youth Advisory Council Updates, which became law
Past Years
2019 Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee page
COYAC 2018 – 2019 Policy Recommendations (PDF) – Youth Budget, Youth Impact Statement, Youth Advisory Committee Review
COYAC 2017 – 2018 Policy Recommendations (PDF) – Teacher Based Mental Health Training, Youth Substance Use, K-12 Funding
COYAC 2016 – 2017 Policy Recommendations (PDF) – Youth Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention, Education and Technology, Secondary Education/Individual Career and Academic Plan Review, Teen Homelessness
COYAC 2015 – 2016 Policy Recommendations (PDF) – 21st Century Learning, Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Issues of Underrepresented Populations in Colorado (refugee/LGBTQ+), Access to Mental Health Services
COYAC 2014 – 2015 Policy Recommendations (PDF) – K12 Standardized Testing, Behavioral Health, Public Safety: Includes School Safety & Human Trafficking, Water
COYAC 2013 – 2014 Policy Recommendations (PDF) – Narrowing the Achievement Gap, Exploring Jobs and Higher Education Opportunities, The Future of Energy Development, Access to Behavioral Health Care (Includes Mental Health Access and Drug and Alcohol Prevention)