NOTE: As provided in LFC policy, this report is intended for use by the standing finance committees of the legislature.  The Legislative Finance Committee does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this report when used in any other situation.

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(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates/Conflicts with/Companion to/Relates to

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

State Department of Education

SUMMARY

Synopsis of HEC Amendment

Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 address the "Technical Issues" described below. Amendment 6 inserts a Subsection I which specifies that the appropriation is contingent upon inclusion of $1,433.0 in the General Appropriation Act to meet the provisions of this act.

General Appropriation Act should be changed to Education Appropriation Act.

Synopsis of Bill

The bill amends Section 22-1-6 NMSA pertaining to the annual School District Accountability Report requirement. The State Department of Education (SDE) will be required to obligate school districts to administer annually a nationally norm-referenced or standard based assessment at grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. Exemptions to the assessment could only be given to students with a profound disability.

Significant Issues

There are no requirements in statute to test specific grade levels. However, since 1997 SDE has required testing of grades 4, 6, and 8. According to SDE by specifying the grades to be tested there is an implication that there are four grades to be tested rather than adding them to the current testing of 3 grades.

The requirement to exempt students with profound disabilities may conflict with federal requirements for Special Education an Bilingual Education.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The cost of expanding the current testing program for students in the four grades listed in the bill will be $1.14 million (114,031 students x $10 per student).

The additional cost of contracting with a test publisher ($286,000) will bring the total cost to $1.43 million.

School districts are paying for the current testing of three grade levels through the school funding formula and not through categorical funding

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

According to SDE large school districts will be required to increase staff prior to and during the testing administration (ordering, packaging, mailing). School districts may need additional staff for analyzing and aligning the curricula with test objectives and for compiling, interpreting the data and publishing the results upon return of scoring reports.

The State Board of Education has requested in the FY 2000 budget request package, 1 FTE at a cost of $58.0 to conduct the work required of expanding the test program to grades 3, 5, 7, and 9.

CONFLICT/DUPLICATION/COMPANIONSHIP/RELATIONSHIP

The State Board of Education has directed SDE to administer the tests at grades 4, 6, and 8. Therefore, HB 624 is in conflict with the current practice unless the bill includes these grades.

SDE reports that NM statute 22-2-8.5 currently contains statewide testing for reading and writing. This section could be considered for amendment instead of Section 22-1-6 NMSA.

SDE explains that there are federal requirements for assessing students who receive special education services or who are Non-English proficient and guidelines for exemptions from statewide testing. These guidelines should be considered in this bill. Also, the bill may conflict with federal statutes regarding exemptions and place the $40.0 million federal dollars received for Special Education programs in jeopardy.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Parts B and C of the bill are identical except that Part B requires the administration of the test at grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 to begin in the school year1999-2000 while Part C requires the administration to begin in school year 2000-2001. It is recommended that Section C be eliminated.

Strike the sentence beginning on line 22 and ending on line 24 page 2 and replace it with the following paragraph:

Only students with disabilities deemed incapable of taking the test as determined on Individual Educational Program( IEP )shall be exempted from this requirement. Additionally, students who have been assessed as Non English Proficient (NEP) shall be exempted from this test and provided an alternative norm- referenced or standards-based assessment in their primary language. (If Section C remains in the bill , then lines 14 through 6, page 3 need to be struck and replaced with this same language.)

Page 3, item 3, lines7 through 10 should be amended to read "except in the case where the number of students being reported is less than 10".

SDE recommends considering expanding the grades from3, 5, 7, and 9 to grades 3 through 9.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

SDE declares that the collection of detail data requires expanding the manner in which data is collected and reported which will result in additional cost to the agency. The gathering of this data may violate The Family Education Rights to Privacy Act in smaller school districts.

BD/gm:njw