A. A public school shall initiate the enforcement of the provisions of the Attendance for Success Act for its enrolled students. The enforcement policies of a public school shall focus on prevention and intervention.

B. Beginning in the 2020-2021 school year, a public school with five percent or greater of students with a chronic absence rate during the prior school year, or with five percent or greater of one or more subgroups of students with a chronic absence rate during the prior school year, shall develop an attendance improvement plan to be submitted to the department as part of the public school's educational plan for student success.

C. A public school, regardless of its chronic absence rate, shall develop and implement a whole-school absence prevention strategy to be reported to the department as part of the public school's educational plan for student success.

D. An attendance improvement plan shall include:

(1) attendance data for each of the preceding two school years and the current school year, including:

(a) the public school's overall absence rate;

(b) chronic absence rates disaggregated by student subpopulation;

(c) chronic absence rates disaggregated by grade level; and

(d) student attendance for every day of the school year;

(2) school-wide identification of potential root causes of chronic and excessive absenteeism through one or more of the following:

(a) national or local research;

(b) analysis of supportive factors and barriers;

(c) student surveys or focus groups;

(d) youth participatory research; or

(e) other appropriate school-based research methods;

(3) identification of strategies for each tier of the attendance improvement plan;

(4) identification of performance measures for each strategy; and

(5) a data-collection plan for performance measures.

E. A public school shall provide interventions to students who are absent or chronically absent, which may include:

(1) assessing student and family needs and matching those needs with appropriate public or private providers, including civic and corporate sponsors;

(2) making referrals to health care and social service providers;

(3) collaborating and coordinating with health and social service agencies and organizations through school-based and off-site delivery systems;

(4) recruiting service providers and business, community and civic organizations to provide needed services and goods that are not otherwise available to a student or the student's family;

(5) establishing partnerships between the public school and community organizations, such as civic, business and professional groups and organizations and recreational, social and out-of-school programs;

(6) identifying and coordinating age-appropriate resources for students in need of:

(a) counseling, training and placement for employment;

(b) drug and alcohol abuse counseling;

(c) family crisis counseling; and

(d) mental health counseling;

(7) promoting family support and parent education programs; and

(8) seeking out other services or goods that a student or the student's family needs to assist the student to stay in school and succeed.

F. Beginning on the first day of school, a classroom teacher or that teacher's adult designee shall be responsible for taking accurate attendance for every class and reporting absences to the attendance team.

History: Laws 2019, ch. 223, § 8.

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.