RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE; CHANGING THE AT-RISK INDEX.

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) is amended to read:

"22-8-23.3. AT-RISK PROGRAM UNITS.--

A. A school district is eligible for additional program units if it establishes within its state board approved educational plan identified services to assist students to reach their full academic potential. A school district receiving additional at-risk program units shall include a report of specified services in its annual accountability report pursuant to Section 22-1-6 NMSA 1978. 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:

B. To calculate the refined at-risk cluster, the department shall rank order each school district in the state on the basis of the district's three-year average of the percentage of membership used to determine its Title I allocation, the percentage of membership classified as limited English proficient using criteria established by the federal office of civil rights, the percentage of student mobility and the percentage of dropouts in the school district. Using this data, the department shall initially group districts into nine clusters using a neural network computer analysis. Each school district shall be assigned a whole number from one to nine reflecting its initial cluster assignment, with higher need school districts receiving a higher number and lower need school districts receiving a lower number. This number shall be modified on the basis of a school district's relative position in the cluster and further refined through the use of a second neural network computer analysis, a back propagation. Using the results of this analysis, the department shall refine the cluster assignment and the number assigned to each school district. The number obtained from this calculation is the refined at-risk cluster.

C. The department shall recalculate the at-risk index for each school district every two years. In a fiscal year in which the at-risk index is recalculated and the recalculation results in a decrease in revenue solely attributable to a decrease in the at-risk index, a district shall receive no less than ninety percent of the at-risk funding generated in the immediately preceding fiscal year. The state department of education shall recalculate the at-risk index for fiscal year 2001."

Section 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2000.

HB 85

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