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

SPONSOR Barreras

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/06/08

HB 604

SHORT TITLE Los Lunas Schools Graduation Prep Counseling

SB

ANALYST Escudero

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$75.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 604 appropriates $75.0 to the Public Education Department (PED) for a pilot program

at Los Lunas Public Schools in graduation counseling aimed at high school seniors and juniors.

The purpose of this bill is to ensure that students are on track toward graduation in terms of their

course taking and the corresponding credit hours needed to graduate

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $75.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any

unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to the general

fund.

This appropriation can be implemented by the PED with existing staff and minimal fiscal impact.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to PED, the New Mexico team that participated in Leadership Training Institutes

conducted through The Wallace Foundation for states last year learned of such a model and pilot

being implemented in Georgia. Anecdotal evaluation is that this model appears to help juniors

House Bill 604 – Page

2

and seniors stay in school, although this may be a little too early to assess. Los Lunas’ school

leadership team was part of the state team lead by the Secretary of Public Education, and

advocates “graduation prep counseling" to stem the tide of students dropping out in their last two

years of high school.

The dropout data for 2006-2007 uses the 40

th

day student count factored and corrected for

duplicates -- students leaving to be home schooled, to go to another school within the public

school system in the state and having left who subsequently pass the GED. Using this formula,

the PED’s Data Collection & Reporting Bureau reports 12.9% dropout for juniors and seniors in

Los Lunas high schools. Dropout numbers of juniors and seniors stand at 131 out of a

junior/senior student base of 1,011.

This school district has a college readiness/high school redesign initiative in place. Changes

relative to a Career Technical Academy for the 11

th

and 12

th

Grades are just underway.

Juniors and seniors need special attention during the critical transition between postsecondary

education and the workforce. Success in postsecondary life and work hinges a great deal on high

school graduation.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

HB 604 aligns to priorities in the PED’s strategic plan for 2005-2010, namely:

•

student achievement and

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Relates to HB 602 with identical provisions for another school district.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

As stated by PED, the Next Step Plan, implemented in school districts since 2004, replaced the

previous 4 Year Plan. Despite regional trainings to build capacity in advisement, full

implementation with fidelity has not been achieved in the state. If the pilot program envisioned

in HB 604 is a different model from traditional counseling/advisement programs, it would be

interesting to gauge its success in increasing graduation rates and overall access to postsecondary

education and work

PME/jp