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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Varela

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

HJM 36

SHORT TITLE Student Health and Fitness Report Card

SB

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB 25 and HB 794

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

Department of Health (DOH)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Joint Memorial 36 requests that the Public Education Department (PED) study the

feasibility of implementing a statewide health and fitness report card program, with the goal of

objectively measuring student weight and fitness levels, informing parents of those results and

encouraging parents to work actively with their children to improve their levels. The PED would

submit a report of the study, including findings and recommendations, to the Legislative

Education Study Committee (LESC) prior to the second session of the 48th Legislature.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Department of Health reports that in New Mexico, 26 percent of high school youth and 24

percent of 2- to 5-year-olds who participate in federally funded nutrition programs are

overweight or at risk for being overweight and these rates have been consistently increasing.

Though national data indicate increasing trends in overweight in this age group, there is no

system in place to capture weight status for children in K-8

th

grades in New Mexico or in most

states.

House Joint Memorial 36 – Page

2

As part of his Healthy Kids plan, the governor announced the creation of the Healthy Schools

Report Card. This assessment tool is designed to measure whether schools are complying with

the initiative of removing unhealthy foods from the schools. This initiative does not however

focus on individual student health.

The memorial makes mention of objectively measuring student weight and fitness levels,

informing parents of those results and encouraging parents to work actively with their children to

improve their levels. Currently, DOH and PED collaborate to conduct the New Mexico Youth

Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS), which collects BMI information through self-reported

height and weight for high school students. At this time there is no other cost-effective means of

monitoring children’s student weight and fitness levels in schools.

Schools through either physical education programs or the school nurse could implement this

type of report card without difficulty.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

HJM36 refers to measuring student weight, but the best measure of weight status for youth is the

Body Mass Index (BMI) percentile, which is calculated from height and weight and is specific to

gender and age.

PA/csd