DENVER—Legislators are analyzing how Colorado schools punish students in order to determine whether changes are needed to policies they say lead to thousands of youth being unnecessarily sent to law enforcement each year.

A panel created by the Legislature this year will begin meeting Monday to look at schools' zero-tolerance policies, some of which were created after the Columbine High School shootings and gang violence in 1993, during the so-called "Summer of Violence."

Republican Rep. B.J. Nikkel, one of the lawmakers on the school discipline panel, said some of the rules implemented after high-profile cases of youth violence have led to the "over-criminalization" of students who get