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HOUSE BILL 432
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Luis M. Terrazas and Andrea Reeb and Cathrynn N. Brown
and Nicole Chavez and Jonathan A. Henry
AN ACT
RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS; ENHANCING AND EXPANDING ENFORCEMENT
PROVISIONS TO REDUCE EXCESSIVE ABSENTEEISM; MAKING IT A CRIME
FOR A PARENT OF AN EXCESSIVELY ABSENT STUDENT TO ALLOW THAT
STUDENT TO CONTINUE BEING ABSENT FROM SCHOOL; PROVIDING
PENALTIES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 22-12A-12 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2019,
Chapter 223, Section 12) is amended to read:
"22-12A-12. EXCESSIVE ABSENTEEISM--ENFORCEMENT--CRIME FOR
PARENT TO ALLOW CONTINUED ABSENCES--PENALTIES .--
A. Each local school board and each governing body
of a charter school or private school shall initiate the
enforcement of the provisions of the Attendance for Success Act
for excessively absent students.
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B. If [unexcused] absences continue after written
notice of excessive absenteeism as provided in Section [11 of
the Attendance for Success Act ] 22-12A-11 NMSA 1978 , the local
school board or governing body of a charter school or private
school, after consultation with the local superintendent or
head administrator of a charter school or private school, shall
report the excessively absent student to the juvenile probation
services office of the judicial district in which the student
resides for an investigation as to whether the student should
be considered to be a neglected child or a child in a family in
need of family services because of excessive absenteeism and,
thus, subject to the provisions of the Children's Code. The
record of the public school's interventions and the student's
and parent's responses to the interventions shall be provided
to the juvenile probation services office. The local
superintendent or head administrator of a charter school or
private school shall provide the documentation to the juvenile
probation services office within ten business days of the
student being identified as excessively absent. In addition to
any other disposition, the children's court may order that an
excessively absent student's driving privileges be suspended
for a specified time not to exceed ninety days on the first
finding of excessive absenteeism and not to exceed one year for
a subsequent finding of excessive absenteeism.
C. If the juvenile probation services office
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determines that the student is a child in a family in need of
family services, a caseworker from the child or family in need
of family services program shall meet with the family at the
public school in which the student is enrolled to determine if
there are other intervention services that may be provided.
The meeting shall involve the school principal or other school
personnel and, unless the parent objects in writing,
appropriate community partners that provide services to
children and families. The children, youth and families
department shall determine if additional interventions,
including monitoring, will positively affect the student's
behavior.
D. It is a violation of the Attendance for Success
Act for a parent of an excessively absent student to cause or
allow that student to continue to be absent from school. The
local school board or governing body of the charter school or
private school that the student attends shall, after
consultation with the local superintendent or head
administrator of the charter school or private school that the
excessively absent student attends, refer the parent of that
student to the local office of the district attorney for
prosecution if that student continues to be absent after having
been referred to the juvenile probation services office as
provided in Subsection B of this section.
E. If a parent who is referred to the local office
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of the district attorney for prosecution pursuant to Subsection
D of this section is found to have caused or allowed that
parent's excessively absent student to continue to be absent
from school, the parent is guilty of a petty misdemeanor. Upon
the first conviction, the parent shall be subject to a fine of
not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) or more than one hundred
dollars ($100), or the parent may be ordered to perform
community service. Upon a second or subsequent conviction, the
parent is guilty of a petty misdemeanor and subject to a fine
of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) or imprisonment
for a definite term not to exceed six months, or both. "
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