---
type: "Bill"
title: "School Employment Background Check Clarification"
description: "School employees - background checks - fingerprinting. Under current law, school employees are required to undergo a fingerprint-based background check. In most statutes, the fingerprints can be taken by a qualified law enforcement agency, an authorized employee of the school or school district, or a third party approved by the Colorado bureau of investigation, but a few statutes do not authorize fingerprints to be taken by an authorized school or school district employee. The act adds that authorization to those statutes. The act requires a law enforcement agency that has fingerprinting equipment that meets federal bureau of investigation image quality standards to take the fingerprints of an applicant if an approved third-party vendor is not operating within 20 miles of a school district, charter school, or nonpublic school in the agency's jurisdiction. The act states that a school or school district employee can use any fingerprinting equipment that meets the federal bureau of investigation image quality standards.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2019A"
identifier: "HB 19-1186"
citation: "Colorado HB 19-1186 (2019A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Barbara McLachlan", "Jeff Bridges", "John Cooke", "Tony Exum"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-02-15T07:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2019-04-10T06:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4b6c7189-7f8a-4c2f-aec3-278125bde62b"
source_url: "http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb19-1186"
source_hash: "9d4f3c331dc6ea575531b960d53ba9b55a8089c834cec8432890f581f3677082"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-co"]
---

# Colorado HB 19-1186 (2019A) — School Employment Background Check Clarification

School employees - background checks - fingerprinting. Under current law, school employees are required to undergo a fingerprint-based background check. In most statutes, the fingerprints can be taken by a qualified law enforcement agency, an authorized employee of the school or school district, or a third party approved by the Colorado bureau of investigation, but a few statutes do not authorize fingerprints to be taken by an authorized school or school district employee. The act adds that authorization to those statutes. The act requires a law enforcement agency that has fingerprinting equipment that meets federal bureau of investigation image quality standards to take the fingerprints of an applicant if an approved third-party vendor is not operating within 20 miles of a school district, charter school, or nonpublic school in the agency's jurisdiction. The act states that a school or school district employee can use any fingerprinting equipment that meets the federal bureau of investigation image quality standards.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Committee Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2019a_hb1186_s_ed_001.pdf)
2. **Engrossed (03/08/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186_eng.pdf)
3. **Final Act (04/01/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186_enr.pdf)
4. **Introduced (02/15/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186_01.pdf)
5. **PA1 (02/27/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186ed_01.pdf)
6. **Reengrossed (03/11/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186_ren.pdf)
7. **Rerevised (03/26/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186_rer.pdf)
8. **Revised (03/25/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_1186_rev.pdf)
9. **Signed Act (04/10/2019)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2019a_1186_signed.pdf)

## Votes

- BILL — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **63–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Barbara McLachlan — primary (person)
- Jeff Bridges — primary (person)
- John Cooke — primary (person)
- Tony Exum — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-04-10T06:00:00+00:00** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2019-04-01T06:00:00+00:00** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-04-01T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2019-03-29T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the Speaker of the House
- **2019-03-26T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-03-25T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Passed - No Amendments `reading-2`
- **2019-03-20T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Education Refer Unamended - Consent Calendar to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage`
- **2019-03-13T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Education `introduction`
- **2019-03-11T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-03-08T07:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee, Floor
- **2019-03-07T07:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2019-03-06T07:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2019-02-26T07:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Education Refer Amended to House Committee of the Whole `referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2019-02-15T07:00:00+00:00** Introduced In House - Assigned to Education `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4b6c7189-7f8a-4c2f-aec3-278125bde62b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).