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

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

SPONSOR Nava

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2-3-2007

2-7-2007 HB

SHORT TITLE Students with Disabilities Scholarship Act

SB 537/aSEC/aSFC

ANALYST Dearing

REVENUE (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Revenue

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

FY09

*$0.1

*$0.1 Recurring

*Students with

Disability Scholarship

Fund

*Please see narrative

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

*If SB 537 were enacted, would affect the created Students with Disability Scholarship Fund

Duplicates HB 518

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (CDHHP)

Responses not Received From

Commission from the Blind

SUMMARY

Synopsis of SFC Amendment

The Senate Finance Committee amends House Bill 537/aSEC such that;

1.) On page, 5, line 2, after the period insert “The department shall submit an annual report to the

legislative finance committee and to the legislative education study committee.".

Senate Finance Committee amendment mandates annual reporting of the scholarship program to

LFC and LESC.

Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page

2

Synopsis of SEC Amendment

The Senate Education Committee amends House Bill 537 such that;

1.) On page, 2, line 24, after the semicolon insert “and".

2.) On page 2, line 25, and page 3, lines 1 and 2, strike Paragraph 3 in its entirety.

3.) Renumber the succeeding paragraph accordingly.

Senate Education Committee amendments make a significant change to the proposed legislation,

thereby removing language that specified non-eligibility for disabled student scholarships from

that fund; for either prior-recipients, or those that had been eligible for services from the

Vocational Rehabilitation division at PED.

The intent of the changes are such that students who were eligible or had received funding for

rehabilitation through PED’s existing program for disabling conditions can receive scholarships

if Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC is enacted.

In this version, the term “students with disabilities" is defined solely

as a student with record of a

disability that is recognized by the Higher Education department; to include conditions that limit

one or more major life activities

1

. The original version contained this definition, and added

limiting language specific to the rehabilitation program participants and those eligible. The

amendments greatly clarify the intended program recipients.

Synopsis of Original Bill

Senate Bill 537 would create a new section of statue to establish the

Students with Disability

Scholarship Act

. The bill prescribes policies and procedures for administration of provisions of

the act and establishes eligibility for scholarship award recipients. SB537 creates the non-

reverting Students with Disability Scholarship Fund. The fund would consist of appropriations,

gifts, grants and donations, and any interest the account would accrue. Subject to appropriations

by the Legislature, the Higher Education department would direct disbursements from the fund

for scholarships of not more than $1000 per semester to disabled student award recipients.

Finally, as written, the act mandates individual post-secondary institutions to provide annual

reporting on program activity to the Higher Education department, including cooperative efforts

in data collection and sharing to administer the program.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

*

Senate Bill 537 carries no direct appropriation from the general fund.

*

Total Scholarships available from the proposed fund would be limited to legislative

appropriations or otherwise available funding, however no estimates of the demand for these

scholarships were provided by reporting agencies.

1

Louisiana State University Law Center; “Many of the federal courts do not like the broad reach of the ADA and have attempted to limit it by a

restricted reading of what constitutes a major life activity. The regulations to the Rehabilitation Act, which also govern this aspect of the ADA,

are ambiguous: "Major life activities" means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking,

breathing, learning, and working. Some courts take this literally, finding that activities that are not on the list, such as reproduction, are not major

life activities." http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/articles/SC_ADA/mobarada-What.html

Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page

3

Senate Bill 537 creates a new fund, the Students with Disability Scholarship Fund, and provides

for continuing appropriations. The LFC has concerns with including continuing appropriation

language in the statutory provisions for newly created funds, as earmarking reduces the ability of

the legislature to establish spending priorities.

The proposed legislation does not prescribe a methodology for prioritizing applications in the

case of scholarship demand exceeding the annual appropriation or otherwise available funds.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to recently received information from the Higher Education department, the following

table provides the current numbers of students with disabilities for the listed schools and

programs.

Institution Students with Disabilities served

CNM- 1,346 students

UNM (Main) - 303 students enrolled in graduate, undergraduate, and professional

classes 90% were retained the following year and 2.99 was the overall grade point average

NMSU (Main) - 350 students

DVR- 1250 (Gary Beene)

The makeup of student with disabilities varies between semesters and campuses as the

admission requirements of community colleges versus comprehensive and research

institutions vary. The majority of students with disabilities at 4-year institutions are learning

disabled students. Students with disabilities at 2-year schools are learning disabled and

developmentally delayed. Therefore, the community college’s mission of providing services

to students with disabilities has a broader scope in delivery of services as compared to that

of a 4-year school.

The New Mexico Higher Education department provides oversight of public postsecondary

education institutions. Institutions are responsible for the organization and coordination of all

services for students with disabilities under several sections of federal law.

The number of eligible persons, including a probable estimate of potential applicants is

indeterminate given agency responses and language included in the bill. According to a

New Mexico Human Services department publication

2

, 368,721 individuals in New Mexico have

some kind of mental disorder.

3

Although this number is (substantially) large, a more accurate estimate for potential demand

could be developed from the number of New Mexicans having received pre-employment

2

Source: New Mexico Human Services department, Behavioral Health Needs and Gaps in New Mexico, 2002

3

Executive summary of Behavioral Health Needs and Gaps in New Mexico, 2002; “While this number may seem high, (it represents about 28

percent of the state’s total population.) the Surgeon General indicates that as many as 30 percent of the nation’s population could benefit from

treatment for mental health needs alone, not counting substance abuse/dependence disorders. This figure for New Mexico is a refinement

of prevalence estimates based on the best scientific data and studies available at this time ( Chapter III)."

Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page

4

vocational rehabilitation services. These services include medical treatment, guidance and

counseling, training and job search skills and are provided by the Public Education department’s

New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. As written, Senate Bill 573 eliminates all

clients that have received rehabilitation services from those eligible to receive scholarships from

the Students with Disability Scholarship Fund.

Specifically, those who have received any services through PED’s rehabilitation program are not

eligible. However, scholarship eligibility is extended

to those that are ineligible

for the PED

program. The following table illustrates the number of disabled participants receiving

vocational rehabilitation and disaggregates them by condition.

Disabling Conditions of Vocational Rehabilitation Clients

Count

%

Orthopedic/ Neurological Impairment

1806

20.6%

Mental Illness (Including Psychotic/ Neurotic/ Behaviour Disorders)

1767

20.2%

Learning Disabled

2084

23.8%

Achohol/ Substance Abuse

402

4.6%

Mental Retardation

374

4.3%

TBI

260

3.0%

Spinal Cord Injury

80

0.9%

Deafness

355

4.0%

Hearing Impariments

613

7.0%

Epilepsy

90

1.0%

Cardiac/ Circulatory Disoders

92

1.0%

Blindness/ Visual Impairments

52

0.6%

Deaf-Blind

7

0.1%

Other

785

9.0%

TOTAL

8767

100%

Table 1. Major Disabling Conditions of NM Div. of Vocational Rehabilitation Clients

4

One condition for eligibility for an applicant is a record of a physical or mental condition that

substantially limits one or more major life activities. Major life activities are not clearly defined

within the Americans with Disabilities Act and many federal courts have tried to restrict the

broad reach of this act.

5

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

As written, the legislation would require each public postsecondary education institution to

submit a report annually to NMHED that includes information required by the department

regarding recipients of the students with disabilities scholarship. Additionally, the department

and public postsecondary education institutions shall cooperate in data collection and data

sharing and for other matters necessary to carry out the provisions of the Students with

Disabilities Scholarship Act.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The Higher Education department would be responsible for administration of the fund and

4

Public Education department’s New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Annual Report; 2006

5

Louisiana State University Law Center; “Many of the federal courts do not like the broad reach of the ADA and have attempted to limit it by a

restricted reading of what constitutes a major life activity. The regulations to the Rehabilitation Act, which also govern this aspect of the ADA,

are ambiguous: "Major life activities" means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking,

breathing, learning, and working. Some courts take this literally, finding that activities that are not on the list, such as reproduction, are not major

life activities." http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/articles/SC_ADA/mobarada-What.html

Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page

5

promulgation of rules for scholarship distribution and eligibility.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Little clarification exists in the definition of “students with disabilities," conditions that

would be eligible for the scholarship but are not eligible for vocational rehabilitation are

not obvious. Clarification is necessary to establish the scope and scale of eligibility and

examples of eligible conditions.

Conditions for eligibility of a student with disabilities as Senate Bill 537 is written:

•

Be a resident of New Mexico;

•

Be an undergraduate student enrolled at least half-time in a degree program in a public

postsecondary education institution in New Mexico;

•

Not have received or is not eligible for financial assistance from the Division of

Vocational Rehabilitation; and

•

Comply with other rules promulgated by NMHED.

Lastly, the proposed legislation does not prescribe a methodology for prioritizing applications in

the case of scholarship demand exceeding the annual appropriation.

DUPLICATION

Senate Bill 537 duplicates House Bill 518.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

A major undertaking of section the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, (Pub. L. No. 93-112, codified at

29 U.S.C. 701 et seq.) was to increase participation by young people with disabilities in

postsecondary education and training programs and provide a national framework for vocational

and other rehabilitation services.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) (Pub. L. No. 101-336, codified at 42 U.S.C.

12101 et seq.) is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances,

discrimination based on disability. The act sought to rectify, among other issues, discrimination

against individuals with disabilities persisting in critical areas such as employment, housing,

public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation,

institutionalization, health services, voting, and access to public services. The act specified that

exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, segregation, and relegation to lesser (public)

services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or other opportunities affected opportunities for this

group.

AMENDMENTS

LFC suggests a proposed amendment such that annual or semi-annual reporting on program

activity is also provided to the Legislative and Executive branches. (Similar to language found

in House Bill 97)

PD/nt:csd