10-29-2023 9:29pm

Opinion New Mexico's Failing Truancy Laws Impact on Alamogordo and Gun Violence

Chris Edwards Editor

Alamogordo Hires 8 New Police Officers

In New Mexico except as otherwise provided, a school-age person shall attend public school, private school, home school or a state institution until the school-age person is at least eighteen years of age unless that person has graduated from high school or received a high school equivalency credential.

The Attendance Success Act was passed by lawmakers in New Mexico in 2019. Under this law, students are allowed 10 absences. Nationwide, in New Mexico and in Alamogordo truancy has become a major issue. An issue that has made the headlines recently due to a student on student shooting this month in Oregon Park near Alamogordo High School. The park is a park known as a hangout for truant children and has been identified by Mayor Susan Payne and others as an area of ongoing concern.

Across the country, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened from the pandemic. More than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year, making them chronically absent, according to the most recent data available. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school. Nationally, the number of students who were chronically absent since the pandemic nearly doubled to about 13.6 million, with 1.8 million of them in California, according to national data compiled by Stanford University education professor Thomas S. Dee.

Under New Mexico law with the backups of the court, the lack of real accountability, a shortage of truancy officers parents are not held accountable and truancy continues to become a larger issue. The law that used to considered the rule of law in New Mexico was Article 12 - Compulsory School Attendance Section 22-12-7 - Enforcement of attendance law; habitual truants; penalty. The law reads, "parent of the student who, after receiving written notice as provided in Subsection B of this section and after the matter has been reviewed in accordance with Subsection D of this section, knowingly allows the student to continue to violate the Compulsory School Attendance Law shall be guilty of a petty misdemeanor. Upon the first conviction, a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) or more than one hundred dollars ($100) may be imposed, or the parent of the student may be ordered to perform community service. If violations of the Compulsory School Attendance Law continue, upon the second and subsequent convictions, the parent of the student who knowingly allows the student to continue to violate the Compulsory School Attendance Law shall be guilty of a petty misdemeanor and shall be 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.

However the law was changed as a result of passage of the New Mexico House Bill 236 (the Attendance for Success Act), signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, it repealed the Compulsory School Attendance law and allegedly “provided a process for prevention of absences, for early intervention, for specialized supports and for referrals to the Children, Youth and Families Department.”

The new act went into effect in the 2020-21 school year. The act established different tiers for identifying and addressing absenteeism in student populations. The intent was “Whole school prevention” to apply to all students and “individualized prevention” targeting students who miss between five and ten percent of classes or school days for any reason. “Early intervention” is for students missing between ten and twenty percent of classes, and “intensive support” is for those missing more than twenty percent.

The law enacted a section of the public school code, “prohibiting out-of-school suspension or expulsion as the punishment for absences” and requirs schools to provide interventions such referrals to health care and social service providers and appropriate counseling.

Progressive interventions for chronically absent students include talks with parents and “establish(ing) nonpunitive consequences at the school level.” After that it provides an avenue for referrals to the local probation office “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...”

The New Mexico Legislature has mandated that NM school districts must report to the local Probation Office (part of CYFD-Children, Youth and Family Department) at two points in particular: When a student reaches 15 absences and at 34 absences, “without exception”.

To see how the state is performing and the Alamogordo Public Schools in student absentism visit https://webnew.ped.state.nm.us/bureaus/safe-healthy-schools/attendance-…

Commentary: The New Mexico Legislature and the State Department of Education has made an mess out of the truancy laws and they need to be updated and changed. There are now no real ways to hold parents accountable for truancy.

With the recent shooting of multiple children and a murder by a high school student at Oregon Park questions are being asked as to what can the school system do and why isn't it acting to better solve the truancy issues and students hanging out at the park. The reality is that the school board of Alamogordo and that of every school board in New Mexico along with law enforcement officers hands are tied.

Mayor Susan Payne of Alamogordo produced a video update on social media calling on collaboration with local governing bodies to help draft a plan to address the many recent shootings, the escalation of local violence and a plan to collaborate on school truancy and violence from youth.

A link to the post or message from Mayor Susan Payne is found below...https://www.facebook.com/100076670690258/posts/337534738812213/?mibexti…

The local community must work together and put pressure on our state elected leaders to force the state to change the truancy laws as one prong of a multipronged approach to keep kids in schools, lessen teen crime and work as a community in collaboration to reduce shootings and gun violence.

As this is written yet another yet another shooting took place in Alamogordo off of Lavelle Road, Alamogordo. More information will be available in a future story...

Source: Stanford University, Alamogordo Police Department, New Mexico Department of Education, AlamogrdoTownNews.com, Facebook