SB0581

SENATE BILL 581

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Linda M. Lopez

AN ACT

RELATING TO SCHOOL PERSONNEL; REQUIRING CONFIDENTIALITY OF SCHOOL PERSONNEL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND PERSONNEL RECORDS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. Section 22-10A-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1975, Chapter 306, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

"22-10A-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the School Personnel Act:

A. "discharge" means the act of severing the employment relationship with a certified school employee prior to the expiration of the current employment contract;

B. "just cause" means a reason that is rationally related to an employee's competence or turpitude or the proper performance of the employee's duties and that is not in violation of the employee's civil or constitutional rights;

C. "personal information" means a school employee's name, age, gender, social security number, contact information, medical history, employment history, current employer or supervisor, job duties or responsibilities, personal financial data, marital status, dependents or beneficiaries;

D. "personnel records" means any personal information related to a current, prospective or past school employee and any information on that employee's application; selection or nonselection; licensure; promotion; demotion; transfer; leave; salary; benefits; contract for employment; performance or competency evaluation, observation or rating; disciplinary actions; suspension; or termination of employment;

[B.] E. "responsibility factor" means a value of 1.20 for an elementary school principal, 1.40 for a middle school or junior high school principal, 1.60 for a high school principal, 1.10 for an assistant elementary school principal, 1.15 for an assistant middle school or assistant junior high school principal and 1.25 for an assistant high school principal;

F. "sabbatical leave" means leave of absence with pay as set by the local school board or governing authority of a state agency during all or part of a regular school term for purposes of study or travel related to the staff member's duties and of direct benefit to the instructional program;

[C.] G. "state agency" means any state institution or state agency providing an educational program requiring the employment of certified school instructors;

[D. "sabbatical leave" means leave of absence with pay as set by the local school board or governing authority of a state agency during all or part of a regular school term for purposes of study or travel related to the staff member's duties and of direct benefit to the instructional program;

E.] H. "terminate" means, in the case of a certified school employee, the act of not reemploying an employee for the ensuing school year and, in the case of a noncertified school employee, the act of severing the employment relationship with the employee; and

[F.] I. "working day" means every calendar day, excluding Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday [and

G. "just cause" means a reason that is rationally related to an employee's competence or turpitude or the proper performance of the employee's duties and that is not in violation of the employee's civil or constitutional rights]."

SECTION 2. Section 22-10A-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1997, Chapter 238, Section 1, as amended) is amended to read:

"22-10A-5. BACKGROUND CHECKS--KNOWN CONVICTIONS--ALLEGED ETHICAL MISCONDUCT--REPORTING REQUIRED--LIMITED IMMUNITY--PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO REPORT.--

A. As used in this section, "ethical misconduct" means unacceptable behavior or conduct engaged in by a licensed school employee and includes inappropriate touching, sexual harassment, discrimination and behavior intended to induce a child into engaging in illegal, immoral or other prohibited behavior.

B. An applicant for initial licensure shall be fingerprinted and shall provide two fingerprint cards or the equivalent electronic fingerprints to the department to obtain the applicant's federal bureau of investigation record. Convictions of felonies or misdemeanors contained in the federal bureau of investigation record shall be used in accordance with the Criminal Offender Employment Act. Other information contained in the federal bureau of investigation record, if supported by independent evidence, may form the basis for the denial, suspension or revocation of a license for good and just cause. Personnel records and related information shall be confidential and privileged and shall not be disclosed to a person not directly involved in the licensure or employment decisions affecting the specific applicant. The applicant for initial licensure shall pay for the cost of obtaining the federal bureau of investigation record.

C. Local school boards and regional education cooperatives shall develop policies and procedures to require background checks on an applicant who has been offered employment, a contractor or a contractor's employee with unsupervised access to students at a public school.

D. An applicant for employment who has been initially licensed within twenty-four months of applying for employment with a local school board, regional education cooperative or a charter school shall not be required to submit to another background check if the department has copies of the applicant's federal bureau of investigation records on file. An applicant who has been offered employment, a contractor or a contractor's employee with unsupervised access to students at a public school shall provide two fingerprint cards or the equivalent electronic fingerprints to the local school board, regional education cooperative or charter school to obtain the applicant's federal bureau of investigation record. The applicant, contractor or contractor's employee who has been offered employment by a regional education cooperative or at a public school may be required to pay for the cost of obtaining a background check. At the request of a local school board, regional education cooperative or charter school, the department is authorized to release copies of federal bureau of investigation records that are on file with the department and that are not more than twenty-four months old. Convictions of felonies or misdemeanors contained in the federal bureau of investigation record shall be used in accordance with the Criminal Offender Employment Act; provided that other information contained in the federal bureau of investigation record, if supported by independent evidence, may form the basis for the employment decisions for good and just cause. Records and related information shall be privileged and shall not be disclosed to a person not directly involved in the employment decision affecting the specific applicant who has been offered employment, contractor or contractor's employee with unsupervised access to students at a public school.

E. A local superintendent, charter school administrator or regional education cooperative shall report to the department any known conviction of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude of a licensed school employee that results in any type of action against the licensed school employee.

F. A local superintendent, charter school administrator or director of a regional education cooperative or their respective designees shall investigate all allegations of ethical misconduct about any licensed school employee who resigns, is being discharged or terminated or otherwise leaves employment after an allegation has been made. If the investigation results in a finding of wrongdoing, the local superintendent, charter school administrator or director of a regional education cooperative shall report the identity of the licensed school employee and the attendant circumstances of the ethical misconduct on a standardized form to the department and to the licensed school employee within thirty days following the separation from employment. Copies of that form shall not be maintained in public school, school district or regional education cooperative records. No agreement between a departing licensed school employee and the local school board, school district, charter school or regional education cooperative shall diminish or eliminate the responsibility of investigating and reporting the alleged ethical misconduct, and any such agreement to the contrary is void. Unless the department has commenced its own investigation of the licensed school employee prior to receipt of the form, the department shall serve the licensed school employee with a notice of contemplated action involving that employee's license within ninety days of receipt of the form. If that notice of contemplated action is not served on the licensed school employee within ninety days of receipt of the form, the form, together with any documents related to the alleged ethical misconduct, shall be expunged from the licensed school employee's records with the department and shall not be subject to public inspection.

G. The secretary may suspend, revoke or refuse to renew the license of a local superintendent, charter school administrator or regional education cooperative director who fails to report as required by Subsections E and F of this section.

H. A person who in good faith reports as provided in Subsections E and F of this section shall not be held liable for civil damages as a result of the report. The person being accused shall have the right to sue for any damages sustained as a result of negligent or intentional reporting of inaccurate information or the disclosure of any information to an unauthorized person."

SECTION 3. Section 22-10A-19 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 153, Section 50, as amended) is amended to read:

"22-10A-19. TEACHERS AND SCHOOL PRINCIPALS--ACCOUNTABILITY--EVALUATIONS--PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT--PEER INTERVENTION--MENTORING--CONFIDENTIALITY.--

A. The department shall adopt criteria and minimum highly objective uniform statewide standards of evaluation for the annual performance evaluation of licensed school employees. The professional development plan for teachers shall include documentation on how a teacher who receives professional development that has been required or offered by the state or a school district or charter school incorporates the results of that professional development in the classroom.

B. The local superintendent shall adopt policies, guidelines and procedures for the performance evaluation process. Evaluation by other school employees shall be one component of the evaluation tool for school administrators.

C. As part of the highly objective uniform statewide standard of evaluation for teachers, the school principal shall observe each teacher's classroom practice to determine the teacher's ability to demonstrate state-adopted competencies.

D. At the beginning of each school year, teachers and school principals shall devise professional development plans for the coming year, and performance evaluations shall be based in part on how well the professional development plan was carried out.

E. If a level two or three-A teacher's performance evaluation indicates less than satisfactory performance and competency, the school principal may require the teacher to undergo peer intervention, including mentoring, for a period the school principal deems necessary. If the teacher is unable to demonstrate satisfactory performance and competency by the end of the period, the peer interveners may recommend termination of the teacher.

F. The results of an evaluation or part of an evaluation of a teacher or principal shall be confidential and privileged and shall not be disclosed to a person not directly involved in the licensure or employment decisions affecting the teacher or principal; provided that the school district and the department may aggregate data from evaluation results for each school district when the data contains no personal information.

[F.] G. At least every two years, school principals shall attend a training program approved by the department to improve their evaluation, administrative and instructional leadership skills."

SECTION 4. Section 22-10A-19.2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2007, Chapter 264, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

"22-10A-19.2. EDUCATOR ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT--DATA--CONFIDENTIALITY.--

A. The department shall:

(1) design a uniform statewide educator accountability reporting system to measure and track teacher and administrator education candidates from pre-entry to post-graduation in order to benchmark the productivity and accountability of New Mexico's educator work force; provided that the system shall be designed in collaboration with:

(a) all public post-secondary teacher and administrator preparation programs in New Mexico, including those programs that issue alternative or provisional licenses;

(b) the teacher and administrator preparation programs' respective public post-secondary educational institutions; and

(2) require all public post-secondary teacher and administrator preparation programs to submit the data required for the uniform statewide educator accountability reporting system through the department's student teacher accountability reporting system;

(3) use the uniform statewide educator accountability reporting system, in conjunction with the department's student teacher education accountability reporting system, to assess the status of the state's efforts to establish and maintain a seamless pre-kindergarten through post-graduate system of education;

(4) adopt the format for reporting the outcome measures of each teacher and administrator preparation program in the state; and

(5) issue an annual statewide educator accountability report.

B. The annual educator accountability report format shall be clear, concise and understandable to the legislature and the general public. All annual program and statewide accountability reports shall ensure that the privacy of individual students is protected.

C. Each teacher and administrator preparation program's annual educator accountability report shall include the demographic characteristics of the students and the following indicators of program success:

(1) the standards for entering and exiting the program;

(2) the number of hours required for field experience and for student teaching or administrator internship;

(3) the number and percentage of students needing developmental course work upon entering the program;

(4) the number and percentage of students completing each program;

(5) the number and types of degrees received by students who complete each program;

(6) the number and percentage of students who pass the New Mexico teacher or administrator assessments for initial licensure on the first attempt;

(7) a description of each program's placement practices; and

(8) the number and percentage of students hired by New Mexico school districts.

D. The educator accountability report shall include an evaluation plan that includes high performance objectives. The plan shall include objectives and measures for:

(1) increasing student achievement for all students;

(2) increasing teacher and administrator retention, particularly in the first three years of a teacher's or administrator's career;

(3) increasing the percentage of students who pass the New Mexico teacher or administrator assessments for initial licensure on the first attempt;

(4) increasing the percentage of secondary school classes taught in core academic subject areas by teachers who demonstrate by means of rigorous content area assessments a high level of subject area mastery and a thorough knowledge of the state's academic content and performance standards;

(5) increasing the percentage of elementary school classes taught by teachers who demonstrate by means of a high level of performance in core academic subject areas their mastery of the state academic content and performance standards; and

(6) increasing the number of teachers trained in math, science and technology.

E. In addition to the specifications in Subsections C and D of this section, the annual educator accountability report shall also include itemized information on program revenues and expenditures, including staff salaries and benefits and the operational cost per credit hour.

F. The annual educator accountability report shall not include any personal information.

[F.] G. The annual educator accountability report shall be adopted by each public post-secondary educational institution, reported in accordance with guidelines established by the department to ensure effective communication with the public and disseminated to the governor, legislators and other policymakers and business and economic development organizations by November 1 of each year."