44th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first special session, 1999

REQUESTING THE CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES DEPARTMENT TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL FOR USING AN INTENSIVE SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM TO HELP AT-RISK STUDENTS ACHIEVE ACADEMIC PARITY.

WHEREAS, many single-parent families are a result of unsupportive parents who have many children in different relationships, causing great pain and devastation to themselves as single parents and their children, putting the children at risk and causing a fiscal burden to the state; and

WHEREAS, low-income, single-parent children are at risk socially, educationally and criminally; and

WHEREAS, many of these children suffer from neglect because the single parent must work at more than one job to support her children, and the parent has no time to give adequate attention to her children; and

WHEREAS, many of these children begin school behind their peers, and as they proceed through the grades, the academic gap widens, leading many of them to drop out of school as academic failures; and

WHEREAS, many of the children in grades four through six have never developed reading skills above the first grade level, which manifests itself in acute problems of socialization; and

WHEREAS, a pilot program involving low-income, at-risk, single-parent children in Clovis used an intensive Phoenix-based reading, math and life skills program that has helped many of them to improve their skills and grade level performance by as much as three grade levels within four months; and

WHEREAS, these improvements have helped the children to improve their social skills and achieve academic parity, giving them a chance to compete on an equal basis;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the children, youth and families department be requested to study the potential for using an intensive summer Phoenix-based learning program, similar to the program in Clovis, to help at-risk students achieve academic parity; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of children, youth and families.