A bipartisan measure that lets retired education executives return to work without losing their pensions cleared the Colorado House this week and now heads to the Senate. House Bill 26-1027 targets one of the state’s most stubborn problems: severe staffing shortages in small and rural districts.
The bill passed third reading 52-10 on Tuesday, with strong Democratic support and a dozen Republicans joining them.
Why Rural Colorado Desperately Needs This Fix
Ask any superintendent west of the Continental Divide and they’ll tell you the same thing: finding qualified leaders for special education, math, or even basic administrative roles feels impossible some years.
The numbers tell the story.
The Colorado Department of Education’s latest 2024-25 vacancy survey shows districts needed to fill 7,792 teacher positions this school year, a 12.4 percent jump from the year before. Special service providers (think speech therapists, school psychologists, counselors) saw an even larger gap: 7,840 openings.
While the overall shortage rate dipped slightly to 2.91 percent because districts keep adding positions, the raw number of empty desks keeps climbing. Rural areas get hit hardest. Many Western Slope and mountain districts report chronic vacancies that force them to combine grades, hire long-term substitutes, or simply go without.
“We’re at the point where we’re asking bus drivers to cover study halls,” one Southwestern Colorado superintendent told me last fall. “That’s not sustainable.”
What HB 26-1027 Actually Does
The legislation is narrow by design. It applies only to retired executive directors of Colorado’s Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). These are the seasoned administrators who have spent decades running shared services for small districts: special education programs, career-tech offerings, gifted and talented, federal grants, everything rural schools can’t afford on their own.
Right now, if one of these retirees wants to come back and help a struggling district, PERA rules slash their pension for every dollar they earn above a certain cap. HB 26-1027 removes that penalty if they fill a critical shortage position declared by the local school board.
Rep. Katie Stewart (D-District 59), the bill’s House sponsor and a former Durango school board member, put it plainly on the floor:
“I’ve seen what happens when we can’t find a qualified special ed director or a curriculum coordinator. Kids lose services. Teachers burn out faster. This bill brings back the exact people who already know how to fix it.”
Real People, Real Impact
In Moffat County, northwest of Grand Junction, the school district has posted its BOCES executive director job three times in 18 months. No qualified applicants.
In Dolores and Montezuma counties, two different BOCES are currently being run by interim leaders because no one will take the permanent role at the salary offered when it means giving up retirement income.
One retired BOCES director I spoke with (he asked me not to use his name because he’s hoping to return) told me he still gets calls every month from superintendents begging him to come back for “just one year.” Under current rules, doing so would cost him roughly $4,000 a month in lost pension benefits.
HB 26-1027 would let him say yes without punishment.
The Vote and What Comes Next
The 52-10 roll call showed surprising cross-aisle support. Every Democrat present voted yes. Eleven Republicans joined them, including Western Slope Rep. Rick Taggart (R-Grand Junction). Rep. Matt Soper (R-Delta) was one of the ten no votes but has not yet explained his opposition publicly.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where similar measures have passed easily in recent years. If it clears that chamber, Governor Jared Polis is widely expected to sign it. He has made reducing educator shortages a centerpiece of his administration.
Bigger Picture: A Small Band-Aid on a Large Wound
No one pretends this single bill solves Colorado’s teacher shortage. It might bring back a few dozen highly experienced administrators at best.
But in rural districts where one retirement can cascade into years of instability, those few dozen people matter enormously.
As Stewart said after the vote, “Sometimes the most meaningful fixes are the targeted ones. These are the people who built the systems we depend on. Let them come home.”
