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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR:	Atkin		DATE TYPED:	2-7-02		HB	295
SHORT TITLE:		Parenting & Family Living School Requirement				SB
					ANALYST:		Segura

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained		Estimated Additional Impact		Recurring or Non-Rec	Fund Affected
FY02	FY03	FY02	FY03
		$0.1 Significant See Narrative

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

State Department of Education (SDE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 295 increases the number of graduation requirements beginning with students entering the ninth grade in 2002-2003 school year to 24 units. The legislation proposes to add one unit in “parenting and family living “ offered in either the ninth or tenth grade.

Significant Issues

According to SDE, the identification of curricular components of this course unit being specified in legislation is inconsistent with all of the other required and elective course units identified in Section 22-28.4. The State Board of Education charges local district/schools with the responsibility of developing curriculum as defined in State Board of Education Regulation 6.30.2.11.

Preparing New Mexico high schools to implement this new course unit in the school year 2002-2003 will pose some challenges in terms of identifying needed licensed staff to deliver this course unit, curriculum development, scheduling, and instructional materials just to name some issues a new course unit requires to be implemented.

The department indicates that this legislation places them in a dilemma of supporting existing, adopted content standards and benchmarks for health education and supporting a required elective that currently does not have content standards and benchmarks to draw upon for the implementation of this graduation requirement.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The bill does not contain an appropriation. According to SDE, public schools will be significantly impacted by enactment of this legislation if all schools must be prepared to implement this new course unit in the 2002-2003 school year.

RS/njw