HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL 160

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC EDUCATION; AMENDING THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CODE TO REQUIRE THAT EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT EMPLOY A MINIMUM OF ONE FULL-TIME, LICENSED REGISTERED SCHOOL NURSE; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

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

     SECTION 1. Section 22-8-9 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1967, Chapter 16, Section 63, as amended) is amended to read:

     "22-8-9. BUDGETS--MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS.--

          A. A budget for a school district shall not be approved by the department that does not provide for:

                (1) a school year and school day as provided in Section 22-2-8.1 NMSA 1978; [and]

                (2) a pupil-teacher ratio or class or teaching load as provided in Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978; and

                (3) a full-time, department-licensed registered school nurse whom the school district employs or with whom the school district contracts for services.

          B. The department shall, by rule, establish the requirements for an instructional day, the standards for an instructional hour, [and] the standards for a full-time teacher and for the equivalent thereof.

          C. Except as provided in Subsection D of this section, the department shall promulgate rules for the implementation of the minimum requirement for a full-time, department-licensed registered school nurse in all school districts in New Mexico.

          D. The department shall promulgate rules to allow for a waiver of the requirement in Paragraph (3) of Subsection A of this section for a rural school district with a student MEM of less than five hundred; provided that:

                (1) the school district demonstrates that it can meet the requirements of this section by hiring or contracting with a part-time, department-licensed registered school nurse; or

                (2) the school district:

                     (a) is not able to hire a qualified nurse or contract with a third party for a qualified nurse because of insufficient availability of such nurses in its geographic vicinity; and

                     (b) requesting a waiver documents its unsuccessful attempts to hire or contract with a department-licensed, registered school nurse."

     SECTION 2. APPROPRIATION.--Nine hundred fifty thousand dollars ($950,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the public education department for expenditure in fiscal year 2018 to assist school districts that have student enrollments of less than five hundred MEM to employ a department-licensed registered school nurse for the 2017-2018 school year. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2018 shall revert to the general fund.

     SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2017.

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