As used in the Public School Finance Act:

1. A. "ADM" or "MEM" means membership;
2. B. "membership" means the total enrollment of qualified students on the current roll of a class or school on a specified day. The current roll is established by the addition of original entries and reentries minus withdrawals. Withdrawals of students, in addition to students formally withdrawn from the public school, include students absent from the public school for as many as ten consecutive school days; provided that withdrawals do not include students who are in need of intervention or who are chronically or excessively absent;
3. C. "basic program ADM" or "basic program MEM" means the MEM of qualified students but excludes the full-time-equivalent MEM in early childhood education and three- and four-year-old students receiving special education services;
4. D. "cost differential factor" is the numerical expression of the ratio of the cost of a particular segment of the school program to the cost of the basic program in grades four through six;
5. E. "department" or "division" means the public education department;
6. F. "distance learning student" means a qualified student who receives full-time virtual instruction and is not required to attend school at a school building;
7. G. "early childhood education ADM" or "early childhood education MEM" means the full-time-equivalent MEM of students attending approved early childhood education programs;
8. H. "family income index rate" means the percentage of students in a school district or charter school that is identified as either extremely low income or very low income by the family income index;
9. I. "full-time-equivalent ADM" or "full-time- equivalent MEM" is that membership calculated by applying to the MEM in an approved public school program the ratio of the number of hours per school day devoted to the program to six hours or the number of hours per school week devoted to the program to thirty hours;
10. J. "operating budget" means the annual financial plan and educational plan required to be submitted by a local school board or governing body of a state-chartered charter school;
11. K. "performance measure" means a quantitative indicator used to assess the output or outcome of an approved program;
12. L. "performance target" means the expected level of performance of a program's performance measure;
13. M. "program cost" is the product of the total number of program units to which a school district is entitled multiplied by the dollar value per program unit established by the legislature;
14. N. "program element" is that component of a public school system to which a cost differential factor is applied to determine the number of program units to which a school district is entitled, including MEM, full-time-equivalent MEM, teacher, classroom or public school;
15. O. "program unit" is the product of the program element multiplied by the applicable cost differential factor;
16. P. "public money" or "public funds" means all money from public or private sources received by a school district or state-chartered charter school or officer or employee of a school district or state-chartered charter school for public use;

17. Q. "qualified student" means a public school student who:

    1. (1) has not graduated from high school;
    2. (2) is regularly enrolled in one-half or more of the minimum course requirements approved by the department for public school students; and

    3. (3) in terms of age and other criteria:

       1. (a) is at least five years of age prior to 12:01 a.m. on September 1 of the school year;
       2. (b) is at least three years of age at any time during the school year and is receiving special education services pursuant to rules of the department;
       3. (c) except as provided in Subparagraph (d) of this paragraph, has not reached the student's twenty-second birthday on the first day of the school year; or
       4. (d) has reached the student's twenty-second birthday on the first day of the 2019-2020 school year, is counted in a school district's or charter school's MEM on the third reporting date of the 2018-2019 school year, has been continuously enrolled in the same public school since that reporting date and is still enrolled in that school;
18. R. "rural population rate" means that proportion of the total population within a school district's geographic boundaries that lives in a rural area and not in an urban area as defined by the United States census bureau;
19. S. "staffing cost multiplier" means the teacher cost index; and
20. T. "state superintendent" or "secretary" means the secretary of public education or the secretary's designee.

History: 1953 Comp., § 77-6-2, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 16, § 56; 1969, ch. 180, § 3; 1971, ch. 263, § 3; 1972, ch. 17, § 1; 1974, ch. 7, § 1; 1974, ch. 8, § 1; 1977, ch. 83, § 1; 1977, ch. 246, § 62; reenacted by Laws 1978, ch. 128, § 3; 1980, ch. 151, § 46; 1983, ch. 301, § 68; 1985, ch. 93, § 1; 1986, ch. 33, § 13; 1988, ch. 64, § 13; 1995, ch. 69, § 1; 1997, ch. 40, § 2; 2004, ch. 27, § 21; 2005, ch. 260, § 1; 2006, ch. 94, § 2; 2009, ch. 193, § 1; 2018, ch. 55, § 1; 2019, ch. 206, § 6; 2019, ch. 207, § 6; 2025, ch. 89, § 1; 2026, ch. 8, § 1.

ANNOTATIONS

Cross references. — For the secretary of public education, see 9-24-5 NMSA 1978 and N.M. Const., art. XII, § 6.

The 2026 amendment, effective July 1, 2026, defined "distance learning student" and "secretary" as used in the Public School Finance Act; added a new Subsection F and redesignated the succeeding subsections accordingly; and in Subsection T, after "'state superintendent'" added "or 'secretary'".

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, defined the term "family income index rate", and revised the definitions of "membership", and "staffing cost multiplier" as those terms are used in the Public School Finance Act; in Subsection B, after "intervention" deleted "and habitual truants the school district is required to intervene with and keep in an educational setting as provided in Section 22-12-9 NMSA 1978" and added "or who are chronically or excessively absent"; added a new Subsection G and redesignated the succeeding subsections accordingly; and in Subsection R, deleted former Paragraphs Q(1) through Q(4), paragraph designation "(5)" and the language "for fiscal year 2023 and subsequent fiscal years".

The 2019 amendment, effective June 14, 2019, defined "performance measure", "performance target", and "rural population", and revised the definitions of certain terms, as used in the Public School Finance Act; in Subsection H, after "financial plan", added "and educational plan"; added new Subsections I and J and redesignated former Subsections I through M as Subsections K through O, respectively; in Subsection O, Paragraph O(3), after "age", added "and other criteria", in Subparagraph O(3)(c), added "except as provided in Subparagraph (d) of this paragraph", and after "school year", deleted "and is receiving special education services pursuant to rules of the department", and added Subparagraph O(3)(d); and added a new Subsection P and redesignated former Subsections N and O as Subsections Q and R, respectively.

Laws 2019, ch. 206, § 6 and Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 6, both effective June 14, 2019, enacted identical amendments to this section. The section was set out as amended by Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 6. See Section 12-1-8 NMSA 1978.

Applicability. — Laws 2019, ch. 206, § 29 and Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 29, provided that the provisions of §§ 2 through 19 apply to the program cost calculation in fiscal year 2020 and subsequent fiscal years.

Temporary provisions. — Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 25 provided that any unexpended or unencumbered balances remaining in the K-3 plus fund on June 30, 2019 shall be transferred to the state-support reserve fund and up to three million dollars ($3,000,000) shall be transferred to the public education department to implement the provisions of Section 26 of this 2019 act in fiscal year 2020.

Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 26 provided that using funds provided in Section 25 of this 2019 act for fiscal year 2020, the public education department shall supplement a school district’s or charter school’s calculated program cost if for fiscal year 2020 the school district’s or charter school’s program cost is less than its final program cost in the previous fiscal year in an amount equal to one hundred percent of the reduction attributable to the implementation of Section 6 of this 2019 act amending the age of the qualified student.

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, defined "staffing cost multiplier" as used in the Public School Finance Act to establish a phased-in teacher cost index; and added a new Subsection N and redesignated former Subsection N as Subsection O.

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, in Subsection B, in the second sentence, after "withdrawals do not include", deleted "truants" and added "students in need of early intervention"; and in Paragraph (3) of Subsection M, added "in terms of age".

The 2006 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, included governing body of a state-chartered charter school in Subsection H; and in Subsection L, changed "local school board "to "school district" and added state-chartered charter school.

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, provided in Subsection B that withdrawals do not include truants and habitual truants that the school district is required to intervene with and keep in an educational setting pursuant to Section 22-12-9 NMSA 1978.

The 2004 amendment, effective May 19, 2004, changed "state department" to "department".

The 1997 amendment, effective July 1, 1997, made a stylistic change in Subsection B.

The 1995 amendment, effective June 16, 1995, inserted "or 'MEM'" and deleted "MEM" from the end in Subsection A; rewrote Subsection C; inserted "or 'division'" in Subsection E; inserted "or 'early childhood education MEM'" and substituted "MEM" for "ADM" in Subsection F; inserted "or 'full-time equivalent MEM'", deleted "average daily" preceding "membership" and substituted "MEM" for "ADM" in Subsection G; substituted "MEM" for "ADM" in two places in Subsection J; deleted "provided the provisions of this paragraph shall be effective with the 1987 - 1988 school year" at the end of Paragraph (3) of Subsection M; deleted former Subsection N which defined "special education ADM"; added Paragraphs (4) and (5) in Subsection M; redesignated former Subsection O as Subsection N; and made minor stylistic changes throughout the section.

The 1988 amendment, effective May 18, 1988, substituted " 'ADM' means membership ('MEM')" for " 'ADM' means average daily membership" in Subsection A; in Subsection B, deleted "average daily" preceding "membership" in the first sentence, substituted "qualified students on the current roll of class or school on a specified day" for "students for each school day of the school year used, minus withdrawals of students, divided by the number of school days used", and added the next-to-last sentence; substituted present Subsection E for the provisions of the former subsection which defined "division"; added Subsection O and made related changes in Subsection N.