HSE Program Pathway Navigator
A decision tool for programs and their boards. Answer three questions — who holds the program, where it teaches, and which year — to find your authorization pathway, what it requires, and when it's due.
How to use this
Answer three questions below — what kind of school holds the program, where it teaches, and which school year. Each answer narrows the path.
You'll land on one pathway with what it requires, the deadlines, and the rules behind it. Then check the baseline steps that apply to everyone.
The grey code tags like § (5)(b) are just citations to the statute — pointers to the source. You can ignore them unless you want to look something up.
Dotted-underlined words have a plain-language definition — hover or tap them. No prior knowledge of the bill assumed.
Key terms, in plain language
- Local Education Provider (LEP)
- The entity that holds the program — it counts the students and draws funding in directly. The statute names four: a school district, a district-chartered school, a CSI-chartered (institute) charter, or a BOCES.
- In-boundary / out-of-boundary
- Whether the program teaches inside the LEP's own home territory (in-boundary, simplest) or reaches into another district (out-of-boundary, needs extra sign-off).
- October Count
- Colorado's count-day snapshot (early October) of pupils enrolled, evidenced by attendance — it sets state funding. § 22-54-103(10)
- Local board authorization
- A written OK from the elected school board of a district the program reaches into, letting an outside program operate there. § (5)(b) / (6)(a)(II)
- No-growth cap
- A 2026-27-only condition: the program's October-Count-funded enrollment may not exceed its 2025-26 funded count. Measured at the count, not by total students who pass through.
Every route at a glance
A program is either in-boundary (operates inside its LEP's home district) or out-of-boundary (needs added authorization). Out-of-boundary routes differ by year.
Route A · § (4)
- Program teaches inside the LEP's home boundary
- No § (5) or § (6) authorization needed
- The § (6) "operating in 25-26" and no-growth caps do not apply
- Go straight to program criteria + assurances
Route B · § (6)
- One CDE application form for either avenue below
- (6)(a)(I) CDE authorization — must have operated in 25-26 + no enrollment growth
- (6)(a)(II) Local board authorization from all districts where it teaches
- Window: apply June 15 – Aug 14, 2026; board votes by Sept 15
- Whole route repealed July 1, 2027 — a one-year bridge into Route C
Route C · § (5)
- (5)(a) State Board certification — rules by Dec 31, 2026; 2-yr term, renewable
- (5)(b) Local board written authorization from all districts; ≤ 2-yr term, renewable
Find your pathway
The LEP is the entity that holds the program — a district, a charter, or a BOCES — and it counts the students and draws funding in directly. Which of the four statutory categories it falls in (set by who chartered it) is what determines the boundary rule. A separate operator may run the program day-to-day under contract, but the LEP remains the holder.
Applies to every pathway
Whichever route authorizes the program, these baseline obligations and the funding calendar hold.
Meet program criteria
No subsidy of private purchases. No students meeting compulsory attendance via private/parochial school. Verify each family's homeschool notification.
Build for funding
Funding is a count-day snapshot (the October Count). Report an HSE student for part-time funding only if scheduled ≥ 90 hrs teacher-pupil contact that semester. One LEP per student; one HSE program per student.
Certify assurances
Every LEP submitting homeschool-flagged students signs CDE compliance assurances — due Sept 15, 2026, before any submission, as part of the Annual Audit Review. CSI schools also certify CSI's assurances in Epicenter (leader + board chair).
Report & claim
Enter students in SIS (Home-Based Ed = 1), take attendance, submit October Count. If operated under contract, the LEP submits using the operator's records.
What's still unsettled
Open questions in the law itself — things the statute and current guidance don't yet answer. Worth tracking before relying on any out-of-boundary route.
- WILL THEY?Whether a local district's board will actually grant an authorization — and on what standards. The § (5)(b) and § (6)(a)(II) routes let a board authorize an outside program, but nothing compels it; a district may be reluctant to sign off on a program competing for the same homeschool students and funding.
- RULES TBDThe State Board certification criteria for the 2027-28 standing route (§ (5)(a)) don't exist yet — due by Dec 31, 2026. Until adopted, the quality, accountability, and reporting standards an out-of-boundary program must meet are unknown.
- FORM PENDINGAs of the CDE FAQ (updated 5/27/26) the schedule is set — apply June 15–Aug 14, 2026 — but the actual application form and its detailed requirements were still to be posted (anticipated ~June 10, after EDAC review June 5). Confirm the form once live.
- EITHER/OR?Whether the out-of-boundary routes are mutually exclusive — and what a denial does. § (5) and § (6)(a) each authorize a program "through one of the following," framing the routes as independent alternatives, not a single election. Nothing in the enacted text says a denial on one route forecloses the other, requires exhausting one first, or bars pursuing both — but nothing expressly permits re-applying or stacking either. Discretion also differs: in 2026-27 CDE shall provisionally authorize any program meeting the three § (6)(a)(I) criteria (ministerial — no quality-based denial), while a local board (§ (5)(b), (6)(a)(II)) and, from 2027-28, the State Board (§ (5)(a)) may authorize and are free to decline. So a program turned down on a discretionary route appears free to try another, since the statute doesn't foreclose it — but confirm any one-route limit, sequencing after a denial, and timing against the § (6) window (June 15–Aug 14) and the ~Sept 15 board vote with CDE / CSI / legal.