


Gov. Jared Polis is winding down bill-signing season with a slew of new laws, including consumer-friendly rules making it easier to cancel services online and measures bolstering the state’s universal school meals program and increasing access to weight-loss drugs.
Polis has until Friday to sign or veto bills that passed during the legislative session, which ended May 7. The state’s $1.2 billion budget gap tamped down the number of bills passed this year compared with flusher financial times, but Polis was still left with hundreds to consider.
Here’s a look at some of the notable new laws signed this week:
School meals program
The voter-approved universal school meals program has consistently landed in the red since its launch in 2023. Costs and the program’s popularity have far outpaced what backers of Proposition FF estimated when they put it before voters in 2022.
Polis on Tuesday signed two bills to shore up the program’s short-term deficit and ask voters for a long-term fix in November. House Bill 1274 sends two ballot questions to voters: one that would allow the program to keep money it collected over Proposition FF’s estimates, and a second that would further limit tax deductions for high-income households to generate money for the program.
The other law, Senate Bill 214, will help keep the program solvent through the end of the calendar year. If voters reject the proposed tax deduction limits, it will restrict the program only to schools in high-poverty areas.
Wegovy, Ozempic coverage
Coloradans who get their health insurance through large-group plans will be able to buy coverage that includes anti-obesity GLP-1 medications, commonly known under the brand names of Ozempic and Wegovy, starting in 2027.
Polis signed the new law, Senate Bill 48, on Tuesday. The law, dubbed the “Diabetes Prevention and Obesity Treatment Act,” also requires large-group plans to provide coverage for medical nutrition therapy, intensive behavioral or lifestyle therapy, and metabolic and bariatric surgery.
The bill was significantly scaled back from an earlier version that would have mandated coverage for anti-obesity GLP-1 medications.
Black history standards
The Colorado Department of Education, with the signing of House Bill 1149, will develop a standard K-12 social studies curriculum that includes Black history and cultural studies. The new requirements must be implemented as part of the state’s typical curriculum updates, the next of which is in 2028.
Canceling online subscriptions
Senate Bill 145 seeks to make it easier for Coloradans to cancel their subscriptions. Under the new law, companies that offer subscription-based services in Colorado must offer a “one-step online cancellation” to consumers here that is “simple, cost-effective, timely, easy to use and readily accessible.” That applies both for monthly bills and for canceling trial subscriptions.
Companies can offer cancellations in person at locations “where the consumer regularly utilizes any goods or services” that are subject to the regular charges, such as a gym.
The law goes into effect Feb. 16.
Police whistleblower protections
The product of months of pre-session negotiations, the law passed as House Bill 1031 makes it unlawful for law enforcement agencies to retaliate against an officer who serves as a whistleblower reporting misconduct within the agency.
Officers can file lawsuits alleging they were retaliated against for raising concerns about internal misconduct. Whistleblowers who are fired in retaliation can be reinstated with back pay, along with other stipulations determined by a judge.