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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Nava
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2-3-2007
2-7-2007 HB
SHORT TITLE Students with Disabilities Scholarship Act
SB 537/aSEC/aSFC
ANALYST Dearing
REVENUE (dollars in thousands)
Estimated Revenue
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY07
FY08
FY09
*$0.1
*$0.1 Recurring
*Students with
Disability Scholarship
Fund
*Please see narrative
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)
*If SB 537 were enacted, would affect the created Students with Disability Scholarship Fund
Duplicates HB 518
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Higher Education Department (HED)
Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (CDHHP)
Responses not Received From
Commission from the Blind
SUMMARY
Synopsis of SFC Amendment
The Senate Finance Committee amends House Bill 537/aSEC such that;
1.) On page, 5, line 2, after the period insert “The department shall submit an annual report to the
legislative finance committee and to the legislative education study committee.".
Senate Finance Committee amendment mandates annual reporting of the scholarship program to
LFC and LESC.
pg_0002
Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page
2
Synopsis of SEC Amendment
The Senate Education Committee amends House Bill 537 such that;
1.) On page, 2, line 24, after the semicolon insert “and".
2.) On page 2, line 25, and page 3, lines 1 and 2, strike Paragraph 3 in its entirety.
3.) Renumber the succeeding paragraph accordingly.
Senate Education Committee amendments make a significant change to the proposed legislation,
thereby removing language that specified non-eligibility for disabled student scholarships from
that fund; for either prior-recipients, or those that had been eligible for services from the
Vocational Rehabilitation division at PED.
The intent of the changes are such that students who were eligible or had received funding for
rehabilitation through PED’s existing program for disabling conditions can receive scholarships
if Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC is enacted.
In this version, the term “students with disabilities" is defined solely
as a student with record of a
disability that is recognized by the Higher Education department; to include conditions that limit
one or more major life activities
1
. The original version contained this definition, and added
limiting language specific to the rehabilitation program participants and those eligible. The
amendments greatly clarify the intended program recipients.
Synopsis of Original Bill
Senate Bill 537 would create a new section of statue to establish the
Students with Disability
Scholarship Act
. The bill prescribes policies and procedures for administration of provisions of
the act and establishes eligibility for scholarship award recipients. SB537 creates the non-
reverting Students with Disability Scholarship Fund. The fund would consist of appropriations,
gifts, grants and donations, and any interest the account would accrue. Subject to appropriations
by the Legislature, the Higher Education department would direct disbursements from the fund
for scholarships of not more than $1000 per semester to disabled student award recipients.
Finally, as written, the act mandates individual post-secondary institutions to provide annual
reporting on program activity to the Higher Education department, including cooperative efforts
in data collection and sharing to administer the program.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
*
Senate Bill 537 carries no direct appropriation from the general fund.
*
Total Scholarships available from the proposed fund would be limited to legislative
appropriations or otherwise available funding, however no estimates of the demand for these
scholarships were provided by reporting agencies.
1
Louisiana State University Law Center; “Many of the federal courts do not like the broad reach of the ADA and have attempted to limit it by a
restricted reading of what constitutes a major life activity. The regulations to the Rehabilitation Act, which also govern this aspect of the ADA,
are ambiguous: "Major life activities" means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking,
breathing, learning, and working. Some courts take this literally, finding that activities that are not on the list, such as reproduction, are not major
life activities." http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/articles/SC_ADA/mobarada-What.html
pg_0003
Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page
3
Senate Bill 537 creates a new fund, the Students with Disability Scholarship Fund, and provides
for continuing appropriations. The LFC has concerns with including continuing appropriation
language in the statutory provisions for newly created funds, as earmarking reduces the ability of
the legislature to establish spending priorities.
The proposed legislation does not prescribe a methodology for prioritizing applications in the
case of scholarship demand exceeding the annual appropriation or otherwise available funds.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
According to recently received information from the Higher Education department, the following
table provides the current numbers of students with disabilities for the listed schools and
programs.
Institution Students with Disabilities served
CNM- 1,346 students
UNM (Main) - 303 students enrolled in graduate, undergraduate, and professional
classes 90% were retained the following year and 2.99 was the overall grade point average
NMSU (Main) - 350 students
DVR- 1250 (Gary Beene)
The makeup of student with disabilities varies between semesters and campuses as the
admission requirements of community colleges versus comprehensive and research
institutions vary. The majority of students with disabilities at 4-year institutions are learning
disabled students. Students with disabilities at 2-year schools are learning disabled and
developmentally delayed. Therefore, the community college’s mission of providing services
to students with disabilities has a broader scope in delivery of services as compared to that
of a 4-year school.
The New Mexico Higher Education department provides oversight of public postsecondary
education institutions. Institutions are responsible for the organization and coordination of all
services for students with disabilities under several sections of federal law.
The number of eligible persons, including a probable estimate of potential applicants is
indeterminate given agency responses and language included in the bill. According to a
New Mexico Human Services department publication
2
, 368,721 individuals in New Mexico have
some kind of mental disorder.
3
Although this number is (substantially) large, a more accurate estimate for potential demand
could be developed from the number of New Mexicans having received pre-employment
2
Source: New Mexico Human Services department, Behavioral Health Needs and Gaps in New Mexico, 2002
3
Executive summary of Behavioral Health Needs and Gaps in New Mexico, 2002; “While this number may seem high, (it represents about 28
percent of the state’s total population.) the Surgeon General indicates that as many as 30 percent of the nation’s population could benefit from
treatment for mental health needs alone, not counting substance abuse/dependence disorders. This figure for New Mexico is a refinement
of prevalence estimates based on the best scientific data and studies available at this time ( Chapter III)."
pg_0004
Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page
4
vocational rehabilitation services. These services include medical treatment, guidance and
counseling, training and job search skills and are provided by the Public Education department’s
New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. As written, Senate Bill 573 eliminates all
clients that have received rehabilitation services from those eligible to receive scholarships from
the Students with Disability Scholarship Fund.
Specifically, those who have received any services through PED’s rehabilitation program are not
eligible. However, scholarship eligibility is extended
to those that are ineligible
for the PED
program. The following table illustrates the number of disabled participants receiving
vocational rehabilitation and disaggregates them by condition.
Disabling Conditions of Vocational Rehabilitation Clients
Count
%
Orthopedic/ Neurological Impairment
1806
20.6%
Mental Illness (Including Psychotic/ Neurotic/ Behaviour Disorders)
1767
20.2%
Learning Disabled
2084
23.8%
Achohol/ Substance Abuse
402
4.6%
Mental Retardation
374
4.3%
TBI
260
3.0%
Spinal Cord Injury
80
0.9%
Deafness
355
4.0%
Hearing Impariments
613
7.0%
Epilepsy
90
1.0%
Cardiac/ Circulatory Disoders
92
1.0%
Blindness/ Visual Impairments
52
0.6%
Deaf-Blind
7
0.1%
Other
785
9.0%
TOTAL
8767
100%
Table 1. Major Disabling Conditions of NM Div. of Vocational Rehabilitation Clients
4
One condition for eligibility for an applicant is a record of a physical or mental condition that
substantially limits one or more major life activities. Major life activities are not clearly defined
within the Americans with Disabilities Act and many federal courts have tried to restrict the
broad reach of this act.
5
PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
As written, the legislation would require each public postsecondary education institution to
submit a report annually to NMHED that includes information required by the department
regarding recipients of the students with disabilities scholarship. Additionally, the department
and public postsecondary education institutions shall cooperate in data collection and data
sharing and for other matters necessary to carry out the provisions of the Students with
Disabilities Scholarship Act.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The Higher Education department would be responsible for administration of the fund and
4
Public Education department’s New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Annual Report; 2006
5
Louisiana State University Law Center; “Many of the federal courts do not like the broad reach of the ADA and have attempted to limit it by a
restricted reading of what constitutes a major life activity. The regulations to the Rehabilitation Act, which also govern this aspect of the ADA,
are ambiguous: "Major life activities" means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking,
breathing, learning, and working. Some courts take this literally, finding that activities that are not on the list, such as reproduction, are not major
life activities." http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/articles/SC_ADA/mobarada-What.html
pg_0005
Senate Bill 537/aSEC/aSFC – Page
5
promulgation of rules for scholarship distribution and eligibility.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
Little clarification exists in the definition of “students with disabilities," conditions that
would be eligible for the scholarship but are not eligible for vocational rehabilitation are
not obvious. Clarification is necessary to establish the scope and scale of eligibility and
examples of eligible conditions.
Conditions for eligibility of a student with disabilities as Senate Bill 537 is written:
Be a resident of New Mexico;
Be an undergraduate student enrolled at least half-time in a degree program in a public
postsecondary education institution in New Mexico;
Not have received or is not eligible for financial assistance from the Division of
Vocational Rehabilitation; and
Comply with other rules promulgated by NMHED.
Lastly, the proposed legislation does not prescribe a methodology for prioritizing applications in
the case of scholarship demand exceeding the annual appropriation.
DUPLICATION
Senate Bill 537 duplicates House Bill 518.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
A major undertaking of section the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, (Pub. L. No. 93-112, codified at
29 U.S.C. 701 et seq.) was to increase participation by young people with disabilities in
postsecondary education and training programs and provide a national framework for vocational
and other rehabilitation services.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) (Pub. L. No. 101-336, codified at 42 U.S.C.
12101 et seq.) is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances,
discrimination based on disability. The act sought to rectify, among other issues, discrimination
against individuals with disabilities persisting in critical areas such as employment, housing,
public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation,
institutionalization, health services, voting, and access to public services. The act specified that
exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, segregation, and relegation to lesser (public)
services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or other opportunities affected opportunities for this
group.
AMENDMENTS
LFC suggests a proposed amendment such that annual or semi-annual reporting on program
activity is also provided to the Legislative and Executive branches. (Similar to language found
in House Bill 97)
PD/nt:csd