44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

RELATING TO EDUCATION; CREATING THE DROPOUT PREVENTION PILOT PROGRAM; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

Section 1. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] TELEPHONES--NOTIFICATION OF PARENTS-- UNEXCUSED ABSENCES.--

A. The department of education shall establish a dropout prevention pilot program at ten public high schools with the highest dropout rates.

B. The dropout prevention pilot project shall run from July 1, 1999 through July 1, 2003.

C. The department of education shall install a telephone in every classroom of each high school pursuant to Subsection A of this section.

D. The high school principal of each high school pursuant to Subsection A of this section shall provide each teacher with the home and work phone numbers of the parent or legal guardian of each student. If a student does not attend class, then a teacher shall call his parent to notify him of the absence.

E. Every parent or legal guardian of any student enrolled in one of the high schools pursuant to Subsection A of this section shall provide to the principal both his work and home telephone number.

F. The department of education shall seek possible private enterprise government partnerships with telephone companies to minimize the cost of installing telephones.

G. The department of education shall report to the legislative education study committee on the changes in the dropout rate in those participating schools by December 1 of each year that the dropout prevention pilot project is implemented."

Section 2. APPROPRIATION.--Two hundred forty-six thousand dollars ($246,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the state department of public education for expenditure in fiscal year 2000 for the purpose of installing telephones in the classrooms of those high schools participating in the dropout prevention pilot project. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2000 shall revert to the general fund.