45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2001

RELATING TO PUBLIC EDUCATION; PROVIDING FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO RECEIVE FUNDING FOR HOME SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO ARE REGULARLY ENROLLED IN ONE-HALF OR MORE OF THE MINIMUM COURSE REQUIREMENTS AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS; AMENDING THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE ACT.

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

Section 1. Section 22-8-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1978, Chapter 128, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

"22-8-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Public School Finance Act:

A. "ADM" or "MEM" means membership;

B. "membership" means the total enrollment of qualified students on the current roll of a class or school on a specified day. The current roll is established by the addition of original entries and reentries minus withdrawals. Withdrawals of students, in addition to students formally withdrawn from the public school, include students absent from the public school for as many as ten consecutive school days;

C. "basic program ADM" or "basic program MEM" means the MEM of qualified students but excludes the full-time-equivalent MEM in early childhood education and three- and four-year-old students receiving special education services;

D. "cost differential factor" is the numerical expression of the ratio of the cost of a particular segment of the school program to the cost of the basic program in grades four through six;

E. "department" or "division" means the state

department of public education;

F. "early childhood education ADM" or "early childhood education MEM" means the full-time-equivalent MEM of students attending approved early childhood education programs;

G. "full-time-equivalent ADM" or "full-time- equivalent MEM" is that membership calculated by applying to the MEM in an approved public school program the ratio of the number of hours per school day devoted to the program to six hours or the number of hours per school week devoted to the program to thirty hours;

H. "operating budget" means the annual financial plan required to be submitted by a local school board;

I. "program cost" is the product of the total number of program units to which a school district is entitled multiplied by the dollar value per program unit established by the legislature;

J. "program element" is that component of a public school system to which a cost differential factor is applied to determine the number of program units to which a school district is entitled, including but not limited to MEM, full-time-equivalent MEM, teacher, classroom or public school;

K. "program unit" is the product of the program element multiplied by the applicable cost differential factor;

L. "public money" or "public funds" means all money from public or private sources received by a local school board or officer or employee of a local school board for public use;

M. "qualified student" means:

(1) a public school student who:

[(1)] (a) has not graduated from high school;

[(2)] (b) is regularly enrolled in one-half or more of the minimum course requirements approved by the state board for public school students; and

[(3)] (c) is at least five years of age prior to 12:01 a.m. on September 1 of the school year; or

[(4)] (d) is at least three years of age at any time during the school year and is receiving special education services pursuant to regulation of the state board; or

[(5)] (e) has not reached his twenty-second birthday on the first day of the school year and is receiving special education services pursuant to regulation of the state board; and

(2) a home school student who meets the requirements of a public school student as set forth in Paragraph (1) of this subsection; provided that two or more home school students regularly enrolled in less than one-half of the minimum course requirements approved by the state board for public school students may be counted as a qualified student when the number of courses in which they are enrolled in the aggregate equal at least one-half of the minimum course requirements; and

N. "state superintendent" means the superintendent of public instruction or his designee."