A. Each local school board or governing body shall develop and promulgate policies that prohibit school personnel from denying any student access to programs or services because the parent or guardian of the student has refused to place the student on psychotropic medication.

B. School personnel may share school-based observations of a student's academic, functional and behavioral performance with the student's parent or guardian and offer program options and other forms of assistance that are available to the parent or guardian and the student based on those observations. However, an employee or agent of a school district or governing body shall not compel or attempt to compel any specific actions by the parent or guardian or require that a student take a psychotropic medication.

C. School personnel shall not require a student to undergo psychological screening unless the parent or guardian of that student gives prior written consent before each instance of psychological screening.

D. Nothing in this act shall be construed to create a prohibition against a teacher or other school personnel from consulting or sharing a classroom-based observation with a parent or guardian regarding:

(1) a student's academic and functional performance;

(2) a student's behavior in the classroom or school; or

(3) the need for evaluation for special education or related services.

E. As used in this section:

(1) "psychotropic medication" means a drug that shall not be dispensed or administered without a prescription, whose primary indication for use has been approved by the federal food and drug administration for the treatment of mental disorders and that is listed as a psychotherapeutic agent in drug facts and comparisons or in the American hospital formulary service; and

(2) "school personnel" means school personnel that the department has licensed.

History: Laws 2015, ch. 51, § 1.

Effective dates. — Laws 2015, ch. 51 contained no effective date provision, but, pursuant to N.M. Const., art. IV, § 23, was effective June 19, 2015, 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature.