HOUSE BILL 136
53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2018
INTRODUCED BY
Patricio Ruiloba
AN ACT
RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS; CREATING THE CHILDHOOD POVERTY AWARENESS TRAINING ACT; REQUIRING ALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT RECEIVE AT-RISK PROGRAM UNITS TO PROVIDE SUCH TRAINING TO SCHOOL EMPLOYEES WHO WORK IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL WITH AT-RISK STUDENTS OR WHO HAVE REGULAR CONTACT WITH AT-RISK STUDENTS TO CREATE AN AWARENESS OF THE EFFECTS OF CHILDHOOD POVERTY ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS; PROVIDING POWERS AND DUTIES; REQUIRING SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT RECEIVE AT-RISK PROGRAM UNITS TO INCLUDE INFORMATION WITH THEIR OPERATING BUDGETS THAT DETAILS SPECIFIC SERVICES, INCLUDING CHILDHOOD POVERTY AWARENESS TRAINING, THAT WERE PROVIDED IN THE PRIOR SCHOOL YEAR AND ARE PROVIDED IN THE CURRENT SCHOOL YEAR TO IMPROVE THE ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF AT-RISK STUDENTS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 22-8-23.3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1997, Chapter 40, Section 7, as amended) is amended to read:
"22-8-23.3. AT-RISK PROGRAM UNITS.--
A. A school district or charter school is eligible for additional program units if it establishes within its department-approved educational plan identified services to assist students to reach their full academic potential. A school district or charter school receiving additional at-risk program units shall develop and submit an action plan to the department with its annual budget submission that outlines the specified services the school district or charter school will implement to improve the academic success of at-risk students and shall also include a report of specified services implemented during the prior school year to improve the academic success of at-risk students and the impact of those specified services. The report shall identify the ways in which the school district and individual schools use funding generated through the at-risk index and the intended outcomes. Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, a school district or charter school that receives at-risk program units shall ensure that all school employees who have regular contact with students or who work in a school receive initial and annual childhood poverty awareness training that details the effects of poverty on student academic achievement and social development as provided in the Childhood Poverty Awareness Training Act.
B. For purposes of this section, "at-risk student" means a student who meets the criteria to be included in the calculation of the three-year average total rate in Subsection [B] C of this section. The number of additional units to which a school district is entitled under this section is computed in the following manner:
At-Risk Index x MEM = Units
where MEM is equal to the total district membership, including early childhood education, full-time-equivalent membership and special education membership and where the at-risk index is calculated in the following manner:
Three-Year Average Total Rate x 0.106 = At-Risk Index.
[B.] C. To calculate the three-year average total rate, the department shall compute a three-year average of the school district's percentage of membership used to determine its Title I allocation, a three-year average of the percentage of membership classified as English language learners using criteria established by the federal office [of] for civil rights and a three-year average of the percentage of student mobility. The department shall then add the three-year average rates. The number obtained from this calculation is the three-year average total rate.
[C.] D. The department shall recalculate the at-risk index for each school district every year."
SECTION 2. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:
"[NEW MATERIAL] SHORT TITLE.--Sections 2 through 4 of this act may be cited as the "Childhood Poverty Awareness Training Act"."
SECTION 3. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:
"[NEW MATERIAL] DEFINITION.--As used in the Childhood Poverty Awareness Training Act, "school employee" means an employee of a school district or charter school who works in a public school that generates at-risk units or who has regular contact with at-risk students."
SECTION 4. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:
"[NEW MATERIAL] TRAINING PROGRAMS--INITIAL AND ANNUAL TRAINING--GOALS.--
A. The goals of the childhood poverty awareness training program are to:
(1) create an awareness of the types of poverty in New Mexico;
(2) create an understanding of the effects of adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma, including poverty, on brain development and learning;
(3) create an understanding of the effects of childhood poverty on students' academic achievement, social development and well-being;
(4) create an understanding of the specific demographics of students in a school district and its individual public schools or students in a charter school, including free or reduced-fee lunch status, English language status, student mobility status, family dynamics and cultural mores and folkways;
(5) provide effective research-based strategies to engage students and families in the educational process so that licensed school employees can use the effective research-based strategies to teach and engage students confronted with adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma, including poverty;
(6) develop strategies to mitigate the academic and social effects of childhood poverty on students and improve the educational experience for students living in poverty; and
(7) assist school districts and charter schools in developing an annual action plan that addresses the specific needs of students experiencing childhood poverty and implement ongoing professional development for school employees that is intensive, job-embedded, collaborative, data-driven, classroom-focused and sustainable.
B. Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, each school district and charter school that receives at-risk program units through the state equalization guarantee distribution shall require their school employees to be trained annually on the effects of adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma, including childhood poverty, on student achievement and social development. Training courses shall be intensive, job-embedded, collaborative, data-driven, classroom-focused and sustainable. The initial course shall be at least six and one-half hours in duration, and subsequent annual courses shall be at least three hours in duration.
C. Each school district and charter school shall develop an action plan to train every school employee in childhood poverty awareness in fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The action plan shall prioritize training for licensed school employees in year one and for unlicensed school employees in year two. The initial training course shall be conducted no later than the end of the first six weeks of the start of the school year. The school district or charter school shall provide a second initial training course within the first six weeks of the first day of the spring semester for school employees who missed the first training course or who were hired after the first initial training. After initial training, each school employee shall attend an annual training course.
D. School districts and charter schools, alone or with other school districts or charter schools that are demographically similar, and regional education cooperatives may develop and conduct department-approved childhood poverty awareness training programs using department-certified trainers.
E. Newly hired school employees who were employed by another school district prior to employment with the current school district may provide proof from their prior school employer that they have attended the required amount of training in the immediately preceding year. If a school employee has attended the required initial training, the school employee needs only to attend the required annual training.
F. The department shall:
(1) approve only those childhood poverty awareness training programs that meet the goals provided in Subsection A of this section and programmatic rules of the department; and
(2) certify qualified childhood poverty awareness trainers."
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