HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL 178
53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017
AN ACT
RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS; CREATING A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PASS PILOT PROJECT; ALLOWING SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND CHARTER SCHOOLS TO USE A PORTION OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STATE TRANSPORTATION DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THAT PILOT PROJECT.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 22-8-29 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1967, Chapter 16, Section 78, as amended) is amended to read:
"22-8-29. TRANSPORTATION DISTRIBUTIONS--REPORTS--PAYMENTS.--
A. On the second reporting date and the third reporting date of each year, each local school board of a school district and governing body of a state-chartered charter school shall report to the state transportation director, upon forms furnished by the state transportation director, the following information concerning the school district's or state-chartered charter school's operation on each respective reporting date of the current year:
(1) the number and designation of school bus routes in operation in the school district;
(2) the number of miles traveled by each school bus on each school bus route, showing the route mileage in accordance with the type of road surface traveled;
(3) the number of students, including special education students, transported on each reporting date of the current year and adjusted for special education students on December 1;
(4) the projected number of students to be transported in the next school year;
(5) the seating capacity, age and mileage of each bus used in the school district for student transportation; and
(6) the number of total miles traveled for each school district's or state-chartered charter school's per capita feeder routes.
B. Each local school board of a school district and governing body of a state-chartered charter school maintaining a school bus route shall make further reports to the state transportation director at other times specified by the state transportation director.
C. The state transportation director shall certify to the secretary that the allocations from the transportation distributions to each school district and state-chartered charter school are based upon the transportation distribution formula established in the Public School Code, calculated and distributed for the entire school year using an average of the amounts reported on the second reporting date and third reporting date of the prior school year, and are subject to audit and verification.
D. The department shall make periodic installment payments to school districts and state-chartered charter schools during the school year from the transportation distributions, based upon the allocations certified by the
state transportation director.
E. Notwithstanding any other section of the Public School Code, a participating school district or state-chartered charter school may use funding from its state transportation distribution in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years to conduct the high school student public transportation pass pilot project pursuant to the Public School Code."
SECTION 2. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:
"[NEW MATERIAL] HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PASS PILOT PROJECT.--
A. The "high school student public transportation pass pilot project" is created as a two-year study that allows the Albuquerque public school district, the Los Alamos public school district or state-chartered charter schools in those districts to use a portion of their respective state transportation distributions to provide monthly or annual passes for high school students in the respective districts to use to purchase public transportation passes to be transported to and from school during the school year. The purpose of the pilot project is to demonstrate cost savings and flexibility for school districts in transporting high school students to and from school.
B. The pilot project shall be administered by the participating school districts and charter schools. The school districts and charter schools shall use a portion of their respective state transportation distributions to fund the pilot project. Students electing to participate in the program shall be included in state transportation distribution calculations pursuant to Section 22-8-29 NMSA 1978. School districts and charter schools shall ensure that students participating in the pilot project are counted only once for purposes of calculating the state transportation distribution.
C. The pilot project shall begin at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year and shall conclude at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.
D. Students enrolled in participating school districts and charter schools may elect to participate in the pilot project for either one or two years and shall elect to participate in the project within the first fifteen school days of the beginning of the school year.
E. Each participating school district and charter school shall require, as a condition of a student's participation in the pilot project, the student's release of the school district from any and all liability for bodily injury or emotional harm, distress, trauma or loss or damage to personal property that may result from the student's use of the public transportation pass for transportation to and from the school that the student attends.
F. For the duration of the pilot project, participating school districts and charter schools shall, at a minimum, collect the following data:
(1) the total number of students participating in the pilot project;
(2) the frequency of participating students' use of public transportation to get to and from school; and
(3) the pilot project's impact on the school district's or charter school's budget.
G. Participating school districts and charter schools shall report to the department and the legislative education study committee on the progress of the pilot project by July 1, 2018. The participating school districts and charter schools shall prepare a final report to be presented to the department and the legislative education study committee by July 1, 2019."
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