(1) The commissioner shall have an office at the seat of the government where he shall keep an official seal and all books and papers pertaining to the business affairs of his office. He shall be entitled to reimbursements for necessary travel and subsistence expenses, incurred either within or without the state, in accordance with regulations promulgated by the state controller.

(2) Copies of all papers, reports, and documents filed in his office, and his official acts, may be certified by him under seal, and when so certified shall be evidence of his official acts equally and in a like manner as the original paper, report, or document or testimony under oath.

(3) (a) Except when requested by the governor or a committee of the general assembly or pursuant to compliance with section 22-32-109.8 or 22-2-119, all papers filed in the department of education that contain personal information about applicants for employment, employees, or holders of educator licenses or authorizations or about pupils' test scores are classified as confidential in nature; however, each educator has the right to inspect and to have copies made at the educator's expense of all information pertaining to the educator on file in the department of education. The educator may challenge any such record by formal letter or other evidence, which shall be added to the state records. The state board may authorize any material to be added to or removed from an educator's official records in its custody. It is unlawful for any officer, employee, or other person to divulge, or to make known in any way, any such personal information without the written consent of said applicant, employee, educator, or pupil; but the information may be divulged or made known in the normal and proper course of administration of programs relating thereto without such written consent. Nothing in this subsection (3) shall be construed in a manner to prohibit the publication of statistics relative to the aforementioned information when so classified as to prevent the identification of educators or pupils involved in said statistics.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subsection (3), on or before July 1, 2004, and on or before July 1 each year thereafter, the department shall provide to the department of higher education a list of the persons initially licensed as educators during the preceding twelve months and, for each such person who completed an approved program of preparation provided by a Colorado institution of higher education, the name of the institution that provided the approved program of preparation, and a list of the persons who have held an educator license for two years as of the reporting date.