§ 22-12A-2 — Definitions

New Mexico § 22-12A-2

• Jurisdiction: New Mexico
• Ch. 22: Public Schools
• Art. 12A: Attendance for Success

Text

As used in the Attendance for Success Act: A. "absent" means not in attendance for a class or school day for any reason, whether excused or not; provided that "absent" does not apply to participation in interscholastic extracurricular activities; B. "attendance improvement plan" means a tiered data-informed system for public schools and school districts to identify students who are chronically or excessively absent and to aid public schools in developing whole-school prevention strategies and targeted interventions. Each of the tiers is defined as follows: (1) "whole school prevention" means universal, whole-school prevention strategies for all students, including students who have missed less than five percent of classes or school days for any reason; (2) "individualized prevention" means targeted prevention strategies for individual students who are missing five percent or more but less than ten percent of classes or school days for any reason; (3) "early intervention" means interventions for students who are missing ten percent or more but less than twenty percent of classes or school days for any reason; and (4) "intensive support" means interventions for students who are missing twenty percent or more of classes or school days for any reason; C. "attendance team" means a group of school-based administrators, teachers, staff, other school personnel and community members who collaborate to implement an attendance improvement plan; D. "chronic absence rate" means the percentage of students, in the aggregate and disaggregated by the subgroups required for reporting pursuant to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, in a public school and a school district who have been enrolled for at least ten days and who have missed ten percent or more of school days since the beginning of the school year; E. "chronically absent" or "chronic absenteeism" means that a student has been absent for ten percent or more of classes or school days for any reason, whether excused or not, when enrolled for more than ten days; F. "excessively absent" or "excessive absenteeism" means a student who is identified as needing intensive support and has not responded to intervention efforts implemented by the public school; G. "excused absence" means absence from a class or school day for a death in the family, medical absence, religious instruction or tribal obligations or any other allowable excuse pursuant to the policies of the local school board; H. "interscholastic extracurricular activities" means those activities sponsored by a public school or an organization whose principal purpose is the regulation, direction, administration and supervision of interscholastic extracurricular activities in public schools; I. "local school board" includes the governing body of a charter school; J. "medical absence" or "medically absent" means that a student is not in attendance for a class or a school day for a parent- or doctor-authorized medical reason or the student is a pregnant or parenting student; K. "school day" means a portion of the school day that is at least one-half of a student's approved program; L. "school district" includes a charter school; M. "school principal" includes the head administrator of a charter school; and N. "unexcused absence" means an absence from a class or school day for which the student does not have an allowable excuse pursuant to the Attendance for Success Act or policies of the local school board.

Legislative History

Laws 2019, ch. 223, § 2.