We’re halfway through our fourth year of the West Slope Youth Voice (WSYV) program and we’ve celebrated lots of wins — from senior graduations to the passing of statewide bills that were drafted and run with student support. Our biggest lesson learned so far is that we shouldn’t underestimate our youth. They are powerful, capable, and going places to accomplish their goals.

Over the years, our WSYV students have impressed us with the number of students they’ve registered to vote, the voices they’ve collected to take to the Capitol, and the bills they’ve worked on at the State Legislature.

Take a look at just some of the bills the students have prioritized in recent years:

HB19-1120: Youth Mental Health Education & Suicide Prevention. This bill, among other things, allowed students 12 years or older to seek and obtain therapy at school without their parents’ consent.

HB19-1032 Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education requires schools who include sex education in their curriculum to use comprehensive and fact-based human sexuality models that include teaching around consent and prohibits including religious ideology as the format for this education.

HB19-1192: The Inclusion of American Minorities in Teaching Civil Government asserts that students deserve the opportunity to receive a whole education in history and government and that includes historical, cultural, and social contributions of American Indians, Latinos, African Americas, Asian Americans, and LGBTQ individuals.

SB20-014: Excused Absences In Public Schools for Behavioral Health expands excused absences for students to include mental health needs as a valid reason to miss a day of school.
But we’ve learned over recent years that these bills are virtually meaningless without oversight and implementation.

While aggravated parents are filling school board meetings with rage that students are being taught Critical Race Theory, students in the classroom aren’t even receiving consistent teaching about the history and contributions of American minorities — which is currently a state-mandated law.

This summer, WSYV students realized even school administrators didn’t know that students are currently able to take excused mental health days. It’s become apparent that teachers and students were also unaware. Our students have begun highlighting that bill in their classroom presentations just to try to get the word out. They are met over and over again with shock from students and the response, “I can!?”
And while students across our districts are asking for sex education, the requirement that curriculum be comprehensive sex education only applies to schools that opt into teaching it at all. Most on the West Slope do not.

It’s apparent now that passing bills is only the half of it. Accountability of the local government to implement these new bills is equally important. As a result, our students increasingly focused locally to ensure they are getting the access and education that has been promised.

Beyond a need for accountability, the students are immediately at risk of losing their voices. Right now, students across the country participate in the “Healthy Kids” survey every two years. This survey is the only large-scale opportunity for students in grades 6-12 to give direct input about their own experiences.
The survey’s purpose is to respond quickly to youth health needs as well as support youth in making healthy choices. Questions in this survey concern age, school, race, sexuality, gender, disabilities, bicycle & automobile safety, sexual consent, bullying, self-harm, substance use, firearms, racism, hunger, and COVID-19 stressors.

The survey itself is anonymous, but the results of the survey are used by several state agencies to direct funding to support Colorado youth. These agencies include the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Department of Education, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Public Safety.

Here’s the problem: A large religious homeschool lobbying group is organizing people across the state to take issue with this survey. They don’t like that the survey asks students questions about sexuality, gender, or race. In some counties these efforts have already been successful, and the survey has been removed from schools. This issue has already been raised in West Slope school board meetings.

If students lose access to this survey, the state will experience erasure of student needs, and struggle to allocate funding appropriately. A few examples of how this could show up are: losing school lunch programs for impoverished kids; protections for students who are black, indigenous, people of color, or LGBTQ+; sexual assault education and services; tobacco/vaping education and remediation; and equity-based suicide prevention programs.

The state of Colorado has already deemed our youth’s mental health needs as being in a “State of Emergency.” And without up-to-date survey results, our students will suffer from lack of support.
I’m often asked how individuals can support the West Slope Youth Voice program, and if you’re interested, this is the moment. Email me at jeriel@westerncoloradoalliance.com and let’s get started.