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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Kernan
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
3/3/07
HB
SHORT TITLE Study Truancy and Delinquency Notices
SB SJM 36
ANALYST Lucero
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY07
FY08
FY09 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
$6.5
$6.5 Non-
Recurring General
Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HJM 40
Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act: The Executive recommendation
includes $1,000.0 for Truancy Prevention/Dropout Prevention
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)
Public Education Department (PED)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Joint Memorial 36, if enacted, requests that the Children, Youth and Families Department
(CYFD) and the Public Education Department (PED) study the subject of truancy and
delinquency notices.
It requests that the CYFD and the PED, in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General
and with representatives of public school districts, private schools, district attorneys, law
enforcement agencies and other appropriate entities, study truancy and the issues surrounding the
timely notification of public and private schools when a student is the subject of a delinquency
petition.
It further requests that the study include a review of actions that school personnel may take upon
receipt of a delinquency petition to assist the student and to discourage truancy.
pg_0002
Senate Joint Memorial 36 – Page
2
Senate Joint Memorial requests that the study include a comprehensive review of the
intervention and enforcement provisions in both the Compulsory School Attendance Law and the
Children's Code.
It requests that CYFD and PED report their findings and recommendations for legislation to
reconcile the inconsistencies in provisions in law dealing with truancy to the Legislative
Education Study Committee no later than November 1, 2007.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
This bill does not make an appropriation
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
The goals of the dropout and truancy prevention programs are to decrease truancy and dropout
and increase student attendance. In order for students to achieve they must first be present. In
addition, the underlying issues for dropout and truancy are oftentimes associated with social,
family and health barriers that prevent students from achieving and that contribute to the
achievement gap. Dropout and truancy prevention programs help to provide supports to
students, schools and families to increase academic success and close the achievement gap for all
students.
Program outcomes established for the Governor’s Truancy Prevention and Dropout Programs
are: (1) decreased truancy rates, (2) decreased dropout rates and (3) increased attendance rates.
Truancy has been identified as one of the early warning signs of students headed for potential
delinquent activity, social isolation or educational failure via suspension, expulsion or dropping
out. Truancy is considered to be one of the top 10 problems facing school. Eighty percent of
dropouts were chronically truant before dropping out. Ninety percent of youths in detention for
delinquent acts were chronically truant.
New Mexico has a daily attendance rate of 95%, which translates to 5% or 16,300 students
absent from school each day. It is estimated that a single day’s absence by one student costs the
school district $17.30 per day or the state $281,990 per day based on a unit value of $3,165 per
student (PED Accountability and Fiscal).
PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
Early truancy intervention strategies will improve attendance, consequently positively impacting
public school performance measures and benchmarks regarding reading, language arts, math and
graduation rates.
SJM 36 may positively impact the academic achievement of a number of youth who are
participating in the alternative suspension program by leading to increased attendance rates,
improved reading and math scores, improved statistics regarding bullying, alcohol use and abuse
and increased graduation rates.
pg_0003
Senate Joint Memorial 36 – Page
3
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
This memorial can be accomplished by existing PED staff working in conjunction with CYFD.
The PED estimates that implementing this memorial will require approximately 200 hours of
staff time. Estimated staff time is as follows: 200 hrs x $22.74/hr x 30% salary & benefits=
$5,912.40/year, plus copying and travel costs of approximately $500.00. There could be an
additional impact depending on what resources PED would be requested to contribute as part of
this study.
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
Duplicates HJM 40. This subject relates to the executive recommendation of $1,000.0 for
Truancy Prevention/Dropout Prevention. Relates to SB68, HB32, SJM32
TECHNICAL ISSUES
None identified
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
A potential conflict exists between the need for truancy and delinquency notices and existing
confidentiality statutes.
According to the Public Education Department, the State has identified 10% of all school age
children as habitual truants during the past two years amounting to about 60,000 youth.
CYFD Juvenile Justice Services received 29,000 referrals last year. Each juvenile probation and
parole officers (JPPO) dealt with about 200 delinquent referrals during this period of time, not
including either truancy referrals or the youth on supervision at the same time, which averaged
about 55 youth per JPPO.
WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL
Status Quo
DL/nt