Create Department of Personnel Program Pathways to Public Service

New state job paths for Colorado students

The law creates Colorado's Pathways to Public Service Program using existing Department of Personnel resources. With state education, labor, and workforce partners, the department links classes, credentials, and work-based learning to state jobs. High schools and colleges choose whether to participate. The program supports school credit for government work projects supervised by a qualified subject expert. The department must adopt hiring policies that count work-based learning as a valid qualification, but hiring is not guaranteed. It must track hires, demographics, training paths, and job retention; the Department of Higher Education need not collect additional data. Reports go to the Colorado Workforce Development Council by June 30, 2027, and every June 30 afterward. The law takes effect at 12:01 a.m. after the 90-day period following final adjournment—August 12, 2026, if adjournment is May 13, 2026. A referendum petition delays challenged provisions until voter approval at the 2026 general election and the governor's declaration of the vote.