Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance
committees of the Legislature. LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports if they
are used for other purposes.
F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Zamora
LAST UPDATED
ORIGINAL DATE 02/10/2025
SHORT TITLE
Seizure Safe Schools Act
BILL
NUMBER House Bill 300
ANALYST Chilton
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT*
(dollars in thousands)
Agency/Program
FY25 FY26 FY27
3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring or
Nonrecurring
Fund
Affected
DOH
No fiscal
impact
$84.6 $84.6 $328.5 Recurring General Fund
DOH
No fiscal
impact
$154.2
No fiscal
impact
No fiscal
impact
Nonrecurring General Fund
NM School for
the Deaf
No fiscal
impact
$5.0 $5.0 $10.0 Recurring General Fund
State-Funded
Schools
No fiscal
impact
$2,300.0 $2,300 $4,500
Total
No fiscal
impact
$2,300.2 $2,30 0.1 $4,600.3 Recurring General Fund
Parentheses ( ) indicate expenditure decreases.
*Amounts reflect most recent analysis of this legislation.
Duplicates Senate Bill 246
Sources of Information
LFC Files
Agency Analysis Received From
Regional Educational Cooperatives (RECA)
Public Schools Insurance Authority (PSIA)
Board of Nursing (BON)
New Mexico Medical Board (NMMB)
New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD)
New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Handicapped (SBVI)
Agency Analysis was Solicited but Not Received From
New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) Public Education Department (PED) Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC) House Bill 300 – Page 2
SUMMARY
Synopsis of House Bill 300
House Bill 300 establishes a new section of the Public School Code (Chapter 22, NMSA 1978)
entitled “Seizure Safe Schools Act,” regarding care for students with seizure disorders that would
apply to any school, private, public, or charter, in New Mexico.
Section 3 of the bill specifies that school employees and bus drivers be trained initially and
annually in recognition and first aid treatment of seizure disorders. School nurses and “seizure
care personnel” (defined in Section 2 as school employees volunteering to trained to be first
responders to seizures occurring in the school setting) would receive further training in acute
seizure management, including use of medications and devices. Schools without at least two
volunteers (including the school nurse but not necessarily required to be health care
practitioners) would be required to seek volunteers for this position.
Parents or guardians of students with known seizure disorders would submit an action plan to
their child’s school, with components of acute and on-going care specified by the child or
adolescent’s medical care provider, to be reviewed by the school nurse and other seizure care
personnel and discussed with the child’s teacher and bus driver and other school personnel
involved with a student with a diagnosed seizure disorder.
The school’s governing body would ensure that children with seizure disorders are assisted with
administration of preventive medication, rescue medication, and/or use of devices to treat acute
seizures.
Section 5B states that the school nurse or at least one seizure care personnel be available to
provide care to students with seizure disorders if needed during all school-sponsored activities,
on- and off-site as, well as on buses with a driver who has not been trained in seizure care.
Section 6 states that actions taken by school nurses and school seizure care personnel would not
be construed to be the practice of medicine, and Section 7 absolves them from liability for
actions taken or not taken, as long as is done carefully and consistently with the provisions of
this act. The bill notes that, “An act or omission is not in good faith if it is the result of willful
misconduct, gross negligence or recklessness.”
This bill does not contain an effective date and, as a result, would go into effect 90 days after the
Legislature adjourns if enacted, or June 20, 2025.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
There is no appropriation in House Bill 300.
The Department of Health states that:
The NM Public Education Department does not employ licensed clinical personnel to
promulgate rules and regulations or develop clinically driven curriculum and training
programing; thus, PED relies on licensed clinical NM DOH staff to assist in the
initiatives. House Bill 300 – Page 3
Although the literature highlights the implications of epilepsy for students and
underscores the need for increased school-related support, the passage of SB300 could
have significant cost-related impact to the PreK through 12 schools and districts, since
this bill does not contain an appropriation for schools to cover the cost of equipment and
training. New Mexico schools would likely incur increased costs for the required training
of personnel, purchasing medical supplies and training equipment, controlled substance
storage, medication disposal, handling registration and storage equipment, and potentially
hiring additional staff to include school nurses for program management and training.
Therefore, DOH has submitted cost estimates for providing that training, to require two
half-time personnel for one year (or full time for six months) at a total cost for salary and
benefits of $154,240 and curriculum development costs of $5 thousand; recurring
expense would be handled by one half-time FTE at $74,620 per year, with $10 thousand
per year in recurring training-associated costs.
NMSD estimates $5 thousand as the annual cost of training its personnel. SBVI does not
anticipate a cost to that school, especially as all students with seizure disorder diagnoses have
care plans in place, and personnel are trained in the issues involved.
While DOH would provide the necessary training to state-funded schools, the department notes
that schools would likely still bear expenses related to medical supply purchase, storage, and
disposal. This analysis assumes that this would cost state-funded schools approximately $2,500
for a total annual cost of $2.3 million.
Section 4-A-1 identifies a student’s medical care provider as a “physician or advanced practice
nurse.” That omits physician assistants who provide primary medical care for many children and
adolescents, as pointed out by the Board of Nursing.
BON also points out that, “The bill should state that school nurses, licensed as nurse under the
nursing practice act, would not be exempt from the nursing practice act, but seizure care
personnel, such as bus drivers and teachers would be exempt from the nursing practice act… It
would not be consistent to exempt school nurses from the Nursing Practice Act for practice in a
specific setting.”
Section 5B’s requirement that a school nurse or a seizure care personnel be present wherever a
child with an identified seizure disorder (no matter how well-controlled) is on a school-
sponsored trip or activity may have the unwanted side-effect of denying children with seizure
disorders taking part in some of these activities, despite Section 6B’s stating that the bill would
not interfere with the rights of students under the federal Individual with Disabilities Education
Act or the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
According to New York University Langone Health, “The words “seizure disorder” and
“epilepsy” are often used interchangeably. However, ‘provoked’ seizures, such as those due to
severe hypoglycemia, are not considered to be forms of epilepsy. There are two main types of
seizures—focal, which are also called partial seizures, and generalized.” Most students who
would have seizure treatment plans would qualify for the diagnosis of “epilepsy,” and would be House Bill 300 – Page 4
the students who would be subject to this bill’s provisions. Seizure disorders are among the most
common chronic disorders affecting children: according to both the Epilepsy Foundation and
Healthline, 1.2 percent of the US population have been diagnosed as having epilepsy.
Seizures are frightening both for the person having the seizure and for all those, especially
children, witnessing them. They may be violent or subtle and are sometimes difficult to identify
as such. Seizures may result in injury from falls or collisions with objects; rarely do seizures
eventuate in death (The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that there is one “sudden
unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)” for every 4,500 children with epilepsy each year). CDC
continues that SUDEP typically occurs due to the following risk factors: generalized seizures,
uncontrolled or frequent seizures, heaving seizures starting early in life, living with epilepsy for
many years, being male, missing seizure medicine doses, and having seizures during sleep. CDC
further states that preventive factors include avoiding seizure triggers when they are known,
learning ways to self-manage seizures, getting enough sleep, and training adults in the house or
other settings, like schools in seizure first aid.
As noted by DOH, “Seizures can be brief or prolonged, and each can have significant impacts on
individuals. Brief seizures are those lasting less than five minutes, while prolonged seizures,
known as status epilepticus, last between five and thirty minutes and can lead to permanent
neuronal injury. Annually, the United States sees an estimated 50,000 to 150,000 cases of status
epilepticus, with mortality rates less than 3% in children but up to 30% in adults.”
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
Senate Bill 246 is a duplicate of this bill except that the House Bill 300 adds a sentence at the
end, “An act or omission is not in good faith if it is the result of willful misconduct, gross
negligence or recklessness.”
LC/hj/SL2