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Colorado School Discipline Bill To Introduced Next Year

DENVER (AP) - Colorado lawmakers agreed to introduce a bill next year that makes changes to post-Columbine school disciplinary policies to give education officials more discretion over expulsions and police referrals.

A legislative committee on Tuesday voted 11-7 to introduce a bill drafted after a panel of lawmakers, law enforcement, and community leaders met this summer to analyze school discipline trends.

The proposed legislation would eliminate zero-tolerance policies that lawmakers say have led to students being needlessly criminalized for actions that previously landed them in the principal's office.

Some of the policies arose after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings where two students killed 13 people and then themselves.

But some committee members have expressed concern about putting additional burdens on school boards that would have to develop new disciplinary codes and consequences for infractions.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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