Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance

committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

if they are used for other purposes.

Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).

Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and

attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.

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

SPONSOR Stewart

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/06

2/14/06 HB 43/aHEC/aHAFC/aaSFC

SHORT TITLE Extend Kindergarten Plus Pilot Project

SB

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Appropriation in House Bill 3

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY06

FY07

FY08 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$39.0

$39.0

$78.0 Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Office of Education Accountability (OEA)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of SFC Amendment

The second set of amendments adopted by the Senate Finance Committee requires that stu-

dent progress be measured by using standardized assessments in kindergarten and first grade.

The amendments strike the requirement that literacy, numeracy and cognitive and social

skills be used in the assessment process.

House Bill 43/aHEC/aHAFC/aaSFC – Page

2

Synopsis of SFC Amendment

The Senate Finance Committee amendment to House Bill 43 as amended provides that students

that participate in kindergarten plus shall be evaluated at the beginning of kindergarten plus and

their progress in literacy shall be measured through standardized assessments in kindergarten and

first grade. The prior version required evaluation of progress in literacy, numeracy, and cogni-

tive and social skills.

Synopsis of HAFC Amendment

The House Appropriations and Finance Committee amendment to House Bill 43 as amended re-

moves appropriation language from the title and removes the appropriation.

Synopsis of HEC Amendment

The House Education Committee amendment to House Bill 43 adds an emergency clause.

Synopsis of Original Bill

House Bill 43 appropriates $1 million from the general fund to the Public Education Department

to expand the Kindergarten Plus pilot project.

The bill extends the length of the Kindergarten Plus pilot project by three years. The pilot pro-

vides for extending the kindergarten year by up to four months but no less than 40 instructional

days for the purpose of demonstrating increased time in kindergarten narrows the achievement

gap, increases cognitive skills and leads to higher test scores.

The bill further expands the program beyond the Albuquerque, Gallup-McKinley, Gadsden and

Las Cruces school districts to any other school district with high poverty schools while allowing

those districts participating to continue their existing program or expanding by adding additional

classes.

The bill also provides for educational assistants to be paid at the same rate and under the same

terms as they would be paid for regular full-day kindergarten programs.

The bill also removes the provision requiring the department to provide professional develop-

ment to Kindergarten Plus teachers in how children learn to read.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

PED notes that by increasing funding to $1 million, House Bill 43 proposes to nearly triple the

number of students potentially served, moving from 266 to approximately 665, increasing the

administrative burden on the PED. An additional FTE would be required to administer the pro-

gram full-time.

The appropriation of $1 million contained in this bill is a nonrecurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall

revert to the general fund.

House Bill 43/aHEC/aHAFC/aaSFC – Page

3

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Kindergarten Plus Pilot began in FY04 as a three year pilot study to extend the traditional

full-day Kindergarten Year by an additional four months. The pilot was based on the premise

that additional days spent in kindergarten would decrease the risk of disadvantaged, particularly

high poverty children of falling behind their peers and beginning first grade without skills neces-

sary to learn. Classrooms were begun in Albuquerque, Gallup-McKinley, Las Cruces and Gads-

den. Schools within these districts were eligible to apply if 85% or more of the students were

eligible for free or reduced priced lunch.

Kindergarten Plus does not promote a specific curriculum, but rather, according to the Public

Education Department (PED) application, each program applying must certify that it was “com-

prehensive, developmentally appropriate, and based on scientific research. Districts were al-

lowed significant flexibility in the implementation of Kindergarten Plus. In addition to not out-

lining a specific curriculum, after the first pilot year, each district was allowed to allocate the ad-

ditional classroom time in ways that were appropriate to the district needs, which created four

distinct Kindergarten Plus programs.

Evaluations conducted by OEA and PED found that students who participated in Kindergarten

Plus demonstrated positive results on the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy

Skills) assessment. The evaluation also found that teachers and administrators felt that Kinder

garten Plus helped at-risk students gain important social and oral language skills, that they began

first grade ready to learn, and in some instances were more academically advanced in first grade

than peers who had not participated in Kindergarten Plus.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Implementing the provisions of Bill 43 is expected to support the PED’s performance measure

relating to the percent of fourth-grade students who achieve proficiency or above on the crite-

rion-references assessments in reading and language arts; and (2) percent of fourth-grade stu-

dents who achieve proficiency or above on the criterion-referenced assessment in mathematics.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 43 relates to an appropriation contained in House Bill 3.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

The Office of Educational Accountability notes House Bill 43 requires that Kindergarten Plus

students be assessed in “literacy, numeracy and cognitive and social skills,” (page 3, line 23).

Currently, New Mexico does not have an official measure of Kindergarten numeracy. The Leg-

islature may wish to consider removing the word numeracy from the requirement of the bill until

the adoption of a Kindergarten numeracy assessment.

PA/mt:nt