45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2002
RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE; CHANGING THE CALCULATION OF THE AT-RISK INDEX USED TO DETERMINE ADDITIONAL PROGRAM UNITS.
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]
three-year average total rate, the department shall [rank
order each school district in the state on the basis] 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
[limited] English [proficient] language learners using
criteria established by the federal office of civil rights and
a three-year average of 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 districts receiving a higher number and lower need
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 department shall then add the three-year
average rates. The number obtained from this calculation is
the [refined at-risk cluster] three-year average total rate.
C. The department shall recalculate the at-risk
index for each school district every [two years] year. For
the 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years, a school
district shall not receive less than ninety percent of the at-risk funding generated in the fiscal year 2001."