HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 77

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2006

INTRODUCED BY

Rick Miera

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY AND EFFECT OF USING STATE SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION DISTRIBUTION FUNDS TO PROVIDE BUS TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE PARTICIPATING IN VARIOUS PROGRAMS THAT ARE CURRENTLY NOT ELIGIBLE FOR STATE FUNDING.

     WHEREAS, school districts in New Mexico are mandated in individualized education plans to provide students who have special needs with opportunities to continue their education programs during the summer, and school districts provide these students with school bus transportation to extended school year programs; and

     WHEREAS, school districts in New Mexico offer after-school academic programs as a means to improve student learning and narrow the achievement gap and depend on the availability of school bus transportation to provide successful after-school programs; and

     WHEREAS, various summer school programs request the use of school buses as a means of making meals available for students who are eligible for free and reduced-fee lunch; and

     WHEREAS, school districts in New Mexico desire to provide their communities with meaningful choices among the schools that students may attend, and the transportation alternatives that are available to students to attend the schools of their choice are limited; and

     WHEREAS, school districts are only permitted to use state transportation distribution funds for the purpose of to-and-from school transportation costs of students in grades kindergarten through twelve attending public school within the school district and of three- and four-year-old developmentally disabled children and for transportation of students to and from their regular attendance centers and the places where vocational education programs are being offered;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public education department be requested to study the feasibility and effect of permitting school districts to use state transportation distribution funds to provide bus transportation alternatives for students in programs for which such funds currently may not be used; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in the course of the study, the department consider the following:

          A. the availability of federal funds that may be used in transporting students;

          B. the potential fiscal, student safety, tort liability, logistical and other effects and constraints that might weigh in the decision to expand the allowable uses of the funds; and

          C. the changes in law and rule that would be required to expand the allowable uses of state and federal transportation funds; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department include input from interested parties, including school district representatives, school bus contractors, municipal transportation officials and families of students who participate in the programs for which state transportation distribution funds are currently not available, and that the department make a report of its findings and recommendations to the legislative education study committee by November 2006; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of public education and the director of the legislative education study committee.

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