HOUSE BILL 703

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Ray Begaye

AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION; CLARIFYING THE DEFINITION OF RURAL SCHOOL DISTRICT.

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

     Section 1. Section 22-1-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 153, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "22-1-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Public School Code:

          A. "adequate yearly progress" means the measure adopted by the department based on federal requirements to assess the progress that a student, a public school or school district or the state makes toward improving student achievement;

          B. "commission" means the public education commission;

          C. "department" means the public education department;

          D. "forty-day report" means the report of qualified student membership of each school district and of those eligible to be qualified students but enrolled in a private school or a home school for the first forty days of school;

          E. "home school" means the operation by the parent of a school-age person of a home study program of instruction that provides a basic academic educational program, including reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science;

          F. "instructional support provider" means a person who is employed to support the instructional program of a school district, including educational assistant, school counselor, social worker, school nurse, speech-language pathologist, psychologist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, recreational therapist, interpreter for the deaf and diagnostician;

          G. "licensed school employee" means teachers, school administrators and instructional support providers;

          H. "local school board" means the policy-setting body of a school district;

          I. "local superintendent" means the chief executive officer of a school district;

          J. "parent" includes a guardian or other person having custody and control of a school-age person;

          K. "private school" means a school, other than a home school, that offers on-site programs of instruction and that is not under the control, supervision or management of a local school board;

          L. "public school" means that part of a school district that is a single attendance center in which instruction is offered by one or more teachers and is discernible as a building or group of buildings generally recognized as either an elementary, middle, junior high or high school or any combination of those and includes a charter school;

          M. "rural school district" means a school district located in a county whose population density is at or under thirty persons per square mile and whose largest city has a population under thirty thousand people;

          [M.] N. "school" means a supervised program of instruction designed to educate a student in a particular place, manner and subject area;

          [N.] O. "school administrator" means a person licensed to administer in a school district and includes school principals and central district administrators;

          [O.] P. "school-age person" means a person who is at least five years of age prior to 12:01 a.m. on September 1 of the school year and who has not received a high school diploma or its equivalent. A maximum age of twenty-one shall be used for a person who is classified as special education membership as defined in Section 22-8-2 NMSA 1978 or as a resident of a state institution;

          [P.] Q. "school building" means a public school, an administration building and related school structures or facilities, including teacher housing, that is owned, acquired or constructed by the school district as necessary to carry out the functions of the school district;

          [Q.] R. "school bus private owner" means a person, other than a school district, the department, the state or any other political subdivision of the state, that owns a school bus;

          [R.] S. "school district" means an area of land established as a political subdivision of the state for the administration of public schools and segregated geographically for taxation and bonding purposes;

          [S.] T. "school employee" includes licensed and nonlicensed employees of a school district;

          [T.] U. "school principal" means the chief instructional leader and administrative head of a public school;

          [U.] V. "school year" means the total number of contract days offered by public schools in a school district during a period of twelve consecutive months;

          [V.] W. "secretary" means the secretary of public education;

          [W.] X. "state agency" or "state institution" means the New Mexico military institute, New Mexico school for the blind and visually [handicapped] impaired, New Mexico school for the deaf, New Mexico boys' school, girls' welfare home, New Mexico youth diagnostic and development center, Sequoyah adolescent treatment center, Carrie Tingley crippled children's hospital, Las Vegas medical center and any other state agency responsible for educating resident children;

          [X.] Y. "state educational institution" means an institution enumerated in Article 12, Section 11 of the constitution of New Mexico;

          [Y.] Z. "substitute teacher" means a person who holds a certificate to substitute for a teacher in the classroom;

          [Z.] AA. "teacher" means a person who holds a level one, two or three-A license and whose primary duty is classroom instruction or the supervision, below the school principal level, of an instructional program;

          [AA.] BB. "certified school instructor" means a teacher or instructional support provider; and

          [BB.] CC. "certified school employee" or "certified school personnel" means a licensed school employee."

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