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.

History: Laws 2019, ch. 223, § 2.

Effective dates. — Laws 2019, ch. 223 contained no effective date provision, but, pursuant to N.M. Const., art. IV, § 23, was effective June 14, 2019, 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature.