HOUSE MEMORIAL 54

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2025

INTRODUCED BY

Brian G. Baca and G. Andrés Romero

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, THE HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT AND THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, TO RESEARCH AND STUDY, DURING THE 2025 LEGISLATIVE INTERIM, PUBLIC SCHOOL SAFETY AND THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SCHOOL SAFETY ENTITY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND TO REPORT THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY TO THE GOVERNOR AND THE NEW MEXICO LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

 

     WHEREAS, according to a February 3, 2020 blog posted by the national academy for state health policy, state leaders are leveraging the momentum of support for safer schools by implementing policy changes to make school environments safer and more supportive; and

     WHEREAS, in a 2024 report by the institute of education sciences, during the 2021-22 school year, about eight hundred fifty-seven thousand violent incidents were recorded by United States public schools and sixty-seven percent of schools reported having at least one violent incident; and

     WHEREAS, in August 2023, in response to concerns of students, parents and school employees, the Portales and Clovis municipal school districts boosted security measures, including installing the Rave Panic phone application on teachers' and administrators' phones, allowing the user to dispatch law enforcement with the push of a button, and an artificial intelligence security camera system called ZeroEyes for gun detection and other measures for use in case of emergencies; and

     WHEREAS, similarly, the New Mexico public school insurance authority contracted with STOPit Solutions to provide certain public and charter schools covered by the authority with access to the company's anonymous reporting software at no additional cost. The platform allows students and staff to anonymously report safety, misconduct or other concerns through a mobile app, web interface or hotline; thirty-six school districts and eleven charter and community schools have been on-boarded, providing more than one thousand students access to the services; and

     WHEREAS, in a recent study report, The Middle Matters: HM4 Middle School Study, released October 16, 2024 by the legislative education study committee, in which the committee studied the quality of New Mexico middle school education, it was noted that students overwhelmingly reported school safety as their major concern; in fact, school safety became the one consensus item across the entire group of students for its importance to them, with students expressing fears about "something bad happening"; and

     WHEREAS, in 2024, the legislative education study committee published Fostering Comprehensive School Safety, which reports that efforts to assess the security needs of schools in New Mexico have revealed an ongoing and critical demand for security funding and identified a need for high-tech solutions like smart cameras or facial recognition software, while many schools report a pressing need for simpler, foundational items like security fencing and reliable radio communication devices; and

     WHEREAS, the New Mexico legislature passed House Bill 505 in the 2023 legislative session, allocating thirty-five million dollars ($35,000,000) from the public school capital outlay fund to support security infrastructure in public schools, and schools have used the funds for a range of security items, including access control systems, consultation services, fencing, security lighting and even gunshot detection technology; and

     WHEREAS, although the allocation offered significant assistance to schools, the need for additional funding remains, as the 2023 allocation has been completely distributed, and based on recommendations from the staff who administered the allocated funds, an allocation of fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) would meet ongoing demand for flexible security funding; further, based on an analysis and interactions with school leaders, legislative education study committee staff anticipate a need for sustained support into the foreseeable future; and

     WHEREAS, funding for varying security measures at separate and distinct schools alone may not be the tool needed to ensure safety in New Mexico's public schools statewide; and

     WHEREAS, some states have taken a broader statewide approach to addressing school safety; for example, the Indiana executive council on cybersecurity, along with the Indiana department of education and federal partners, developed an updated toolkit designed for superintendents, administrators, teachers, staff members, school board members, parents and concerned citizens that provides ways to protect schools, teachers, families, students and others; and

     WHEREAS, according to the October 5, 2022 report 50-State Comparison, published by the education commission of the states regarding K-12 schools, at least thirty-two states have established a school safety entity, including centers, boards or offices, and at least forty-four states require a school safety plan in statute and regulations, with thirty of those states requiring law enforcement to be involved in the creation of a school safety plan; and

     WHEREAS, in 2023, Colorado established, similar to the state of Indiana, an office of school safety within Colorado's department of public safety composed of three units: the school safety resource center, the crisis unit and the grants unit; and

     WHEREAS, in lieu of funds spent for piecemeal improvements to New Mexico school safety, perhaps a more comprehensive approach could be employed in a standardized manner to more efficiently expend funds, prevent overlap and build statewide consistency in school safety measures; and

     WHEREAS, as such, a deeper dive into the subject matter, with a focus on a statewide positive impact, could reveal a benefit for New Mexico schools from a centralized, cohesive and standardized approach to school safety emanating from a specific entity tasked with developing and establishing the state's plan and distribution of resources for school safety;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative education study committee, in collaboration with the department of public safety, the homeland security and emergency management department and the public education department, be requested to research and study school safety through a lens of establishing a designated entity, including a department, division or bureau, to develop, establish and maintain a statewide public school safety plan, including the creation by the entity of a website dedicated to providing information about the entity's role and the resources available and developed by the entity, the details of the public school safety plan and any other matter deemed appropriate and necessary to carry out the entity's mission and to report the results of the research and study to the governor and the New Mexico legislative council; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the legislative education study committee, the secretary of public safety, the secretary of homeland security and emergency management, the secretary of public education and the New Mexico legislative council.

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