A Colorado BOCES Authorized A Public Christian School — What It Means For Oversight And School Choice

Six decades after Colorado created regional school cooperatives to help districts share services they could not afford on their own, one cooperative has used that structure to pursue a very different goal: authorizing a publicly funded school with an explicit religious mission.

What Happened

In August, Education reEnvisioned (ERBOCES) authorized Riverstone Academy in Pueblo County and enrolled an initial cohort of 30 elementary students. ERBOCES billed Riverstone as Colorado’s "first public Christian school." The school received a state funding installment in January and is now the subject of a state audit and a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination.

Why This Is Controversial

Colorado’s Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) were created in 1965 so districts could pool resources for services such as special education, career and technical education, gifted programming and professional development. ERBOCES, which began in 2013 as Colorado Digital BOCES, has grown into an unusually large and active cooperative that:

• Contracts with outside operators rather than directly hiring school staff;
• Authorizes more than 50 state-funded homeschool enrichment programs serving 8,000+ students (these programs receive roughly half the normal per-pupil state payment); and
• Expanded its network of schools from two to 10 and enrollment from about 2,200 to roughly 13,500 students since 2017.

Oversight, Law, And Local Control

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has limited enforcement authority over BOCES, primarily focused on areas such as special education compliance. Much day-to-day oversight falls to BOCES boards of directors, which vary in makeup and governance practices. Critics say that regulatory gaps and inconsistent board oversight have enabled ERBOCES to operate in ways some lawmakers and district leaders say were never intended by the 1965 law.

In 2024 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of Colorado Springs School District 11, finding that state law does not give BOCES unrestricted authority to open schools in any district they choose — a decision that raised questions about ERBOCES' placement of schools and programs outside its member districts.

Questions About Riverstone’s Origins And Operations

Documents and reporting raise several concerns about Riverstone’s start-up and transparency:

• Key startup documents did not disclose the school’s religious mission or an explicit intent to create litigation over public funding for religious education.
• An attorney’s email indicates Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) helped prompt a Colorado test case after a similar federal case deadlocked, and ERBOCES opened Riverstone shortly afterward.
• Riverstone is operated by Forging Education, a Pueblo nonprofit that runs Christian private schools and homeschool programs; some of Forging Education’s records list Riverstone as a private school.
• County officials issued more than a dozen health and safety violations after learning classes had begun in a building that had not passed inspections; Riverstone agreed to close that building in late January and has not publicly disclosed a temporary location.
• Questions about ERBOCES board eligibility and missing or nonexistent meeting recordings have added to concerns about governance and transparency.

Potential Outcomes

If the state audit finds Riverstone ineligible for public funding under Colorado’s prohibition on religious public schools, the state could seek repayment of funds already distributed. Riverstone and ERBOCES have filed a lawsuit arguing the cooperative and school are being discriminated against on religious grounds.

Why This Matters

The Riverstone episode highlights a tension between expanding educational options and protecting public accountability, local control and the separation of church and state. Lawmakers, district leaders and education advocates must decide whether to tighten statutory guardrails for BOCES authorizing powers and board governance — or preserve the current flexibility that some say fuels innovation in public education.