republic-os/legislation/us/states/co/2023a/sb-23-004.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Employment Of School Mental Health Professionals"
description: "Under current law, a mental health professional must be licensed by the department of education (department) in order to work in a school. The act authorizes a school or school district, the state charter school institute, a board of cooperative services that operates a school, or the division of youth services to employ school-based therapists who are not licensed by the department but hold a Colorado license for their profession to work in coordination with licensed special service providers to coordinate mental health supports for students. Before being employed, the school-based therapists must satisfy certain requirements for nonlicensed school employees, including a fingerprint-based criminal background check. Any school-based therapists may be supervised by a mentor special services provider or a licensed administrator. If an eligible school-based therapist provides services to a student related to the student's individualized education program, the eligible school-based therapist must have qualifications consistent with the student's individualized education program."
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2023A"
identifier: "SB 23-004"
citation: "Colorado SB 23-004 (2023A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Dafna Michaelson Jenet", "Janice Marchman", "Mary Young", "Sonya Jaquez Lewis"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 14
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2023-01-09T07:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2023-05-04T06:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bd965d4f-512c-44c0-b380-db90a4fae963"
source_url: "https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb23-004"
source_hash: "563cf84223072039efd4aebb6fcdf56ed784b7be769d96cd201589efbcf54b06"
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 SB 23-004 (2023A) — Employment Of School Mental Health Professionals

Under current law, a mental health professional must be licensed by the department of education (department) in order to work in a school. The act authorizes a school or school district, the state charter school institute, a board of cooperative services that operates a school, or the division of youth services to employ school-based therapists who are not licensed by the department but hold a Colorado license for their profession to work in coordination with licensed special service providers to coordinate mental health supports for students. Before being employed, the school-based therapists must satisfy certain requirements for nonlicensed school employees, including a fingerprint-based criminal background check. Any school-based therapists may be supervised by a mentor special services provider or a licensed administrator. If an eligible school-based therapist provides services to a student related to the student's individualized education program, the eligible school-based therapist must have qualifications consistent with the student's individualized education program.

## Version chain

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

1. **Committee Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2023a_sb004_h_ed_001.pdf)
2. **Engrossed (02/15/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_eng.pdf)
3. **Final Act (04/27/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_enr.pdf)
4. **Introduced (01/09/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_01.pdf)
5. **PA1 (02/13/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_s_hhs_01.pdf)
6. **PA2 (04/10/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_h_ed_01.pdf)
7. **Reengrossed (02/16/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_ren.pdf)
8. **Rerevised (04/18/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_rer.pdf)
9. **Revised (04/17/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023A/bills/2023a_004_rev.pdf)
10. **Signed Act (05/04/2023)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2023a_004_signed.pdf)

## Votes

- REPASS — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- CONCUR — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **30–0** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **62–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Dafna Michaelson Jenet — primary (person)
- Janice Marchman — primary (person)
- Mary Young — primary (person)
- Sonya Jaquez Lewis — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-05-04T06:00:00+00:00** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2023-04-27T06:00:00+00:00** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-04-27T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the Speaker of the House
- **2023-04-26T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2023-04-19T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Considered House Amendments - Result was to Concur - Repass
- **2023-04-18T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2023-04-17T06:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee
- **2023-04-12T06:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2023-04-06T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Education Refer Amended to House Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2023-02-21T07:00:00+00:00** Introduced In House - Assigned to Education `introduction`
- **2023-02-16T07:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2023-02-15T07:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Passed with Amendments - Committee `reading-2`
- **2023-02-09T07:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Health & Human Services Refer Amended - Consent Calendar to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage`
- **2023-01-09T07:00:00+00:00** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Health & Human Services `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bd965d4f-512c-44c0-b380-db90a4fae963`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).