45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2002

RELATING TO SCHOOL CHOICE; AUTHORIZING THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS AT CERTAIN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS; CREATING THE PARENTAL CHOICE ACT; AMENDING AND ENACTING SECTIONS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CODE.

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] SHORT TITLE.--Sections 1 through 8 of this act may be cited as the "Parental Choice Act"."

Section 2. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.--

A. The legislature finds that:

(1) every family in New Mexico should have the option to take advantage of the best educational opportunities available to their children;

(2) providing families in New Mexico a choice between schools leads to competition that benefits students and improves the quality of public schools;

(3) students should be allowed to improve their learning potential through educational opportunities that are best suited to their individual needs and interests; and

(4) low-income families should not be denied educational choices for their children.

B. The purpose of the Parental Choice Act is to establish a program that provides New Mexico's students the opportunity to attend their choice of public or private schools in order to best suit their individual needs and interests."

Section 3. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Parental Choice Act:

A. "family income" means the income of a student's parent or legal guardian who resides with the student at the student's principal residence;

B. "federal poverty guidelines" means the level of income defining poverty by family size published annually in the federal register by the United States department of health and human services;

C. "local school district" means the school district where a student resides;

D. "program" means the parental choice program; and

E. "certificate" means a note issued to a qualifying parent through the department of education used to educate his child at a public school or eligible private school."

Section 4. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROGRAM--ADOPTING RULES.--

A. The department of education shall establish and bear the cost of administering the program.

B. The state board shall establish guidelines for the implementation and operation of the program.

C. A private school shall not be required to participate in the program.

D. No more than ten percent of the public school population in a municipality with a population greater than four hundred thousand according to the 2000 federal decennial census shall receive certificates.

E. The department of education, in cooperation with the school districts, shall embark on a public awareness campaign to inform the public about the program using the schools, other government agencies and the media."

Section 5. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] ELIGIBLE STUDENTS.--

A. A student who is a resident of a municipality in New Mexico with a population greater than four hundred thousand according to the 2000 federal decennial census and is at least five years of age prior to 12:01 a.m. September 1 of the school year or is a developmentally disabled three- or four-year-old child is eligible to participate in the program if his family income is at or below one hundred eighty-five percent of the federal poverty guidelines.

B. A student who receives a certificate pursuant to the Parental Choice Act shall participate in the testing required by Subsection B of Section 22-1-6 NMSA 1978. The testing shall be administered by the school district in which the student who receives the certificate resides."

Section 6. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] ELIGIBLE PRIVATE SCHOOLS.--

A. To be eligible to participate in the program, a private school shall:

(1) register with the superintendent of a local school district as an eligible private school;

(2) maintain or develop antidiscrimination policies to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or ancestry; and

(3) develop policies that do not discriminate against students who are recipients of certificates.

B. A private school that accepts students who are participants in the program shall not be required to comply with rules that apply to public schools promulgated by either the state board or the local school board."

Section 7. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] PROCEDURES FOR USING CERTIFICATES.--

A. A parent or legal guardian may use a certificate to enroll his child in a public school outside of the school district in which the child resides or in an eligible private school.

B. A school district shall adopt specific, written standards for acceptance and rejection of certificates provided for in the Parental Choice Act based on the capacity of class size, grade level or school buildings.

C. Not earlier than March 1 and not later than July 1 prior to the beginning of a school year, a student's parent or legal guardian may apply to the local school district superintendent to participate in the program. The local school district superintendent may waive the application deadline. The application shall contain the following information:

(1) the student's name and address;

(2) the student's date of birth;

(3) the student's social security number;

(4) the student's school attendance zone;

(5) the student's grade level;

(6) the name and address of the student's parent or legal guardian who is residing with the child;

(7) for a parent or legal guardian who resides with the student at the student's principal residence, when required by the local school district superintendent, proof of income eligibility through copies of:

(a) the student's, parent's or legal guardian's three most recent paycheck receipts for all employment;

(b) a signed statement by the parent's or legal guardian's employer indicating his weekly, biweekly or annual net earnings; or

(c) a signed statement by the parent or legal guardian indicating that he is self-employed and that includes his annual net earnings, with a copy of his most recent income tax return attached;

(8) whether the student was enrolled in a class A, B, C or D special education program in the prior school year or, for a child entering school for the first time, whether the child has a diagnosed developmental disability or learning disorder;

(9) whether the student speaks a language other than English as his principal language; and

(10) the name, tuition, fees and address of the public or private school to which the student intends to apply.

D. No later than forty-five days after the application is received, the local school district superintendent shall act on the application, notify the parent or legal guardian of the value of the certificate and issue the certificate if the application is approved.

E. The certificate shall be issued to the student in the care of the student's parent or legal guardian. The certificate shall not be issued to the private school or school district containing the public school that the student chooses to attend.

F. The student and his parent or legal guardian shall solely select the public or private school the student chooses to attend. The state shall not decide which school a student may attend. The state shall not advise or influence the student's selection of a school.

G. Not later than August 15 of each year, the local school district superintendent shall report to the department of education the ages, schools, school attendance zones and certificate values of students participating in the program."

Section 8. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] CERTIFICATES--REDEMPTION.--

A. The value of a certificate shall be equal to the amount of money generated by the student through the state equalization guarantee distribution provided in the Public School Finance Act and a proportionate per-student amount for transportation expenses if the student had attended a public school in his school attendance zone. The value of the certificate shall also include a proportionate allocation for the local school district's at-risk funding. The department of education shall calculate the value of a student's certificate using the state equalization guarantee distribution formula.

B. Subject to the value of the certificate set forth in Subsection A of this section, the certificate redemption value shall not exceed the tuition and fees charged by a private school for students not participating in the program unless the cost of educating the student presenting the certificate is greater than the tuition and fees charged, in which case the value of the certificate shall not exceed those costs.

C. Within fifteen days after receiving a certificate, a private school shall, in writing, certify the enrollment of the student named on the certificate and shall, in writing, certify the amount of tuition and fees charged by the private school to the department of education.

D. A private school or a school district located outside of the student's attendance zone shall redeem the value of the certificate from the local school district in the following installments: twenty-five percent of the value determined in Subsection A of this section in September, twenty-five percent of the value determined in Subsection A of this section in November, twenty-five percent of the value determined in Subsection A of this section in February and twenty-five percent of the value determined in Subsection A of this section in May. The installments shall be paid on the first day of the applicable month.

E. If a private school disenrolls a student during the school year or if the student is absent for ten consecutive days without explanation from his parent or legal guardian, the private school shall, in writing, notify the local school district, and the certificate redemption shall cease.

F. If a parent or legal guardian disenrolls a student from a private school and enrolls the student in another private school or in a public school during the school year, the parent or legal guardian shall, in writing, notify the local school district. Upon receipt of proof of enrollment in another private school and certification of tuition and fees charged by the new private school, the remaining scholarship redemption installments shall be made to the new private school. Upon proof of enrollment in a public school, the remaining redemption installments shall be made to the school district in which the public school is located."

Section 9. Section 22-1-6 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 308, Section 1, as amended) is amended to read:

"22-1-6. ANNUAL SCHOOL DISTRICT ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT REQUIRED.--

A. School districts are required to publish an annual school district accountability report to provide district-wide data for the previous school year. The state board shall establish the format for the accountability reports and ensure that the relevant data is provided annually to parents, students, educators, policymakers, legislators, the governor and business and economic development organizations. The department of education shall establish the following five indices through which public school performance shall be measured and reported to school districts:

(1) student achievement as measured by a nationally norm-referenced test approved by the department of education or through a performance-based instrument to measure proficiency;

(2) school safety;

(3) the dropout rate;

(4) attendance; and

(5) parent and community involvement.

The department of education shall establish the methodology for measuring each of the five indices.

B. Effective July 1, 1999, school districts shall annually administer a nationally norm-referenced test or a standards-based assessment to all students in grades three through nine enrolled in a public school [in grades three through nine] or receiving a certificate pursuant to the Parental Choice Act. Only students with disabilities deemed incapable of taking the test as determined on their individual educational programs shall be exempted from this requirement. Students who have been assessed as non-English or limited English proficient using state approved language assessments and meeting required thresholds shall be exempted from this test and provided an alternative norm-referenced or standards-based assessment in their primary language. School districts shall report the following to the department of education and the parent or legal guardian of a student receiving a certificate pursuant to the Parental Choice Act:

(1) the results of the norm-referenced test or standards-based assessment;

(2) the number of enrolled students who did not take the test, the school in which they are enrolled and the reason for the exemption from the test; and

(3) separately and as part of the aggregate report, the results of assessments of students enrolled in special education class A, B, C and D programs who took the test and the school in which they are enrolled, except in cases where the number of students being reported is less than ten.

C. School districts shall set two-, four- and six-year benchmarks in each of the five indices for each public school. Local school boards may establish additional indices, if reviewed by the department of education, through which to measure the school district's performance in other areas.

D. The annual accountability report shall also include the results of a survey of parents' views of the quality of their children's school. The survey shall be conducted each year in time to include the results in the annual accountability report. The survey shall compile the results of a written questionnaire that shall be sent home with the students to be given to their parents. The survey may be completed anonymously. The survey shall be no more than one page, shall be clearly and concisely written and shall include not more than twenty questions that shall be answered with options of a simple sliding scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" and shall include the optional response "don't know". The survey shall also include a request for optional written comments, which may be written on the back of the questionnaire form. The questionnaire shall include questions in the following areas:

(1) parent-teacher-school relationship and communication;

(2) quality of educational and extracurricular programs;

(3) instructional practices and techniques;

(4) resources;

(5) school personnel, including the school principal; and

(6) parents' view of teaching staff expectations for the students.

The state board shall develop no more than ten of the questions, which shall be reviewed by the legislative education study committee prior to implementation. No more than five questions shall be developed by the local school board and no more than five questions shall be developed by the staffs of each individual school site; provided that at least half of those questions shall be developed by teachers rather than administrators, in order to gather information that is specific to the particular community surveyed. The questionnaires shall indicate the public school site and shall be tabulated by the department of education within thirty days of receipt and shall be returned to the respective schools to be disseminated to all parents.

E. The annual accountability report shall also include a report of all federal funds distributed directly to the school district or received by the district from the department of education. For each distribution, the purpose for which the money was received shall be stated with a detailed accounting of the purposes for which the funds were expended.

F. The annual accountability report for each school district shall be adopted by the local school board, may be published no later than November 15 of each year and may be published at least once each school year in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the school district is located. In publication, the report shall be titled "The School District Report Card" and disseminated in accordance with guidelines established by the state board to ensure effective communication with parents, students, educators, local policymakers and business and community organizations.

G. The department of education shall create an accountability data system through which data from each public school and each school district may be compiled and reviewed. The department of education shall provide the resources to train school district personnel in the use of the accountability data system.

H. The department of education shall verify data submitted by the school districts.

I. The state board shall measure the performance of every public school in New Mexico. Public schools achieving the highest level of performance shall be eligible for supplemental incentive funding. The state board shall establish the corrective actions and interventions necessary for public schools whose performance level is low.

J. The school district shall submit a copy of its annual accountability report to the legislative finance committee, the legislative education study committee and the library of the legislative council service."

Section 10. 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 and all students who have received certificates pursuant to the Parental Choice Act 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 a public school student who:

(1) has not graduated from high school;

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

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

(4) 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) 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

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

Section 11. DELAYED REPEAL.--Sections 1 through 8 of this act are repealed effective January 1, 2006.