A. "absent" means not in attendance for a class or school day for any reason, whether excused or not; provided that "absent" does not apply to participation in interscholastic extracurricular activities;

B. "attendance improvement plan" means a tiered data-informed system for public schools and school districts to identify students who are chronically or excessively absent and to aid public schools in developing whole-school prevention strategies and targeted interventions. Each of the tiers is defined as follows:

(1) "whole school prevention" means universal, whole-school prevention strategies for all students, including students who have missed less than five percent of classes or school days for any reason;

(2) "individualized prevention" means targeted prevention strategies for individual students who are missing five percent or more but less than ten percent of classes or school days for any reason;

(3) "early intervention" means interventions for students who are missing ten percent or more but less than twenty percent of classes or school days for any reason; and

(4) "intensive support" means interventions for students who are missing twenty percent or more of classes or school days for any reason;

C. "attendance team" means a group of school-based administrators, teachers, staff, other school personnel and community members who collaborate to implement an attendance improvement plan;

D. "chronic absence rate" means the percentage of students, in the aggregate and disaggregated by the subgroups required for reporting pursuant to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, in a public school and a school district who have been enrolled for at least ten days and who have missed ten percent or more of school days since the beginning of the school year;

E. "chronically absent" or "chronic absenteeism" means that a student has been absent for ten percent or more of classes or school days for any reason, whether excused or not, when enrolled for more than ten days;

F. "excessively absent" or "excessive absenteeism" means a student who is identified as needing intensive support and has not responded to intervention efforts implemented by the public school;

G. "excused absence" means absence from a class or school day for a death in the family, medical absence, religious instruction or tribal obligations or any other allowable excuse pursuant to the policies of the local school board;

H. "interscholastic extracurricular activities" means those activities sponsored by a public school or an organization whose principal purpose is the regulation, direction, administration and supervision of interscholastic extracurricular activities in public schools;

I. "local school board" includes the governing body of a charter school;

J. "medical absence" or "medically absent" means that a student is not in attendance for a class or a school day for a parent- or doctor-authorized medical reason or the student is a pregnant or parenting student;

K. "school day" means a portion of the school day that is at least one-half of a student's approved program;

L. "school district" includes a charter school;

M. "school principal" includes the head administrator of a charter school; and

N. "unexcused absence" means an absence from a class or school day for which the student does not have an allowable excuse pursuant to the Attendance for Success Act [Chapter 22, Article 12A NMSA 1978] or policies of the local school board.

(1) establishes an early warning system that includes evidence-based metrics to identify students at risk of chronic absenteeism or excessive absenteeism;

(2) provides for early identification of chronically absent and excessively absent students;

(3) employs an attendance improvement plan that focuses on:

(a) keeping students in an educational setting;

(b) prohibiting out-of-school suspension or expulsion as the punishment for absences;

(c) assisting a student's family to remove barriers to the student's regular school attendance or attendance in another educational setting; and

(d) providing additional educational opportunities to students who are struggling with attendance;

(4) limits the ability of a student to withdraw to only after all intervention efforts by the public school or the children, youth and families department to keep the student in an educational setting have been exhausted;

(5) requires that accurate class attendance be taken for every instructional class and school day in a public school or school program;

(6) provides that a public school shall differentiate between different types of absences;

(7) requires a public school to document the following for each chronically or excessively absent student:

(a) attempts by the public school to notify a parent that the student was absent from class or the school day;

(b) attempts to improve attendance by talking to a student or parent to identify barriers to school attendance, identify solutions to improve the student's attendance behavior and discuss necessary interventions for the student or the student's family; and

(c) intervention strategies implemented to support keeping the student in an educational setting, including additional educational opportunities offered to the student;

(8) requires a student or the parent of a student who intends to claim excused absence because of medical condition, pregnancy or parenting to communicate the student's status to the appropriate school personnel and to provide required documentation; and

(9) encourages and supports compliant data sharing, pursuant to the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 [20 U.S.C. § 1232g], between a public school and community-based organizations that provide services to students for the purpose of providing more personalized interventions and specialized supports as part of the public school's attendance improvement plan.

(1) the rights and obligations of parents and students pursuant to the Attendance for Success Act;

(2) the prevention strategies that will be implemented to ensure that students attend classes; and

(3) details about consequences of failing to adhere to the attendance policy.

(1) specific school district supports and resources available to public schools at each level to further the implementation of their attendance improvement plans;

(2) attendance improvement targets for public schools or subpopulations with chronic absence rates of ten percent or greater, developed in collaboration with each public school; and

(3) an attendance improvement target for school districts with chronic absence rates of ten percent or greater.

(1) a description of the supports and resources provided to public schools at each tier of the attendance improvement plan;

(2) the extent to which public schools with chronic absence rates greater than ten percent achieved their attendance improvement targets;

(3) the extent to which the school district achieved its attendance improvement targets;

(4) barriers and challenges to reducing chronic absence rates, as reported by the public school and school district personnel;

(5) effective school-based practices, as evidenced by decreased chronic absence rates; and

(6) recommendations for improvement during the next school year at both the public school and school district level.

(1) attendance data for each of the preceding two school years and the current school year, including:

(a) the public school's overall absence rate;

(b) chronic absence rates disaggregated by student subpopulation;

(c) chronic absence rates disaggregated by grade level; and

(d) student attendance for every day of the school year;

(2) school-wide identification of potential root causes of chronic and excessive absenteeism through one or more of the following:

(a) national or local research;

(b) analysis of supportive factors and barriers;

(c) student surveys or focus groups;

(d) youth participatory research; or

(e) other appropriate school-based research methods;

(3) identification of strategies for each tier of the attendance improvement plan;

(4) identification of performance measures for each strategy; and

(5) a data-collection plan for performance measures.

(1) assessing student and family needs and matching those needs with appropriate public or private providers, including civic and corporate sponsors;

(2) making referrals to health care and social service providers;

(3) collaborating and coordinating with health and social service agencies and organizations through school-based and off-site delivery systems;

(4) recruiting service providers and business, community and civic organizations to provide needed services and goods that are not otherwise available to a student or the student's family;

(5) establishing partnerships between the public school and community organizations, such as civic, business and professional groups and organizations and recreational, social and out-of-school programs;

(6) identifying and coordinating age-appropriate resources for students in need of:

(a) counseling, training and placement for employment;

(b) drug and alcohol abuse counseling;

(c) family crisis counseling; and

(d) mental health counseling;

(7) promoting family support and parent education programs; and

(8) seeking out other services or goods that a student or the student's family needs to assist the student to stay in school and succeed.

(1) for a student who has been identified as in need of individualized prevention, the attendance team shall:

(a) for an elementary student, talk to the parent and inform the parent of the student's attendance history, the impact of student absences on student academic outcomes, the interventions or services available to the student or family and the consequences of further absences, which may include referral to the children, youth and families department for excessive absenteeism; and

(b) for a middle or high school student, talk to the parent and the student about the student's attendance history and the impact of student absences on student academic outcomes, interventions or services available to the student or family and the consequences of further absences, which may include referral to the children, youth and families department for excessive absenteeism;

(2) for a student who has been identified as in need of early intervention, the attendance team shall notify the parent in writing by mail or personal service on the parent of the student's absenteeism. The notice shall include a date, time and place for the parent to meet with the public school to develop intervention strategies that focus on keeping the student in an educational setting. The attendance team shall be convened to establish a specific intervention plan for the student that includes establishing weekly progress monitoring and a contract for attendance; and

(3) for a student who has been identified as in need of intensive support, the attendance team shall:

(a) give written notice to the parent, including a date, time and place for the parent to meet with the school principal and the attendance team;

(b) establish nonpunitive consequences at the school level;

(c) identify appropriate specialized supports that may be needed to help the student address the underlying causes of excessive absenteeism; and

(d) apprise the student and the parent of the consequences of further absences.

(1) the total number of days missed for excused and unexcused absences for each student in each public school, the total number of days each student was enrolled and in which tier each student with absences fell during the reporting period, along with the student's demographics; and

(2) the number of students at each public school who were referred to the children, youth and families department because of excessive absences, in the aggregate and disaggregated by subgroups.

(1) the total number and percent of students who were in each tier of chronic absenteeism or were excessively absent at each public school and school district in the aggregate for each public school and school district and disaggregated by subgroups;

(2) the average number of excused and unexcused absences per student for all students and subgroups, not including interscholastic extracurricular activities; and

(3) a calculated chronic absenteeism rate for the school district for all students and for each subgroup.

(1) in accordance with the definition of "attendance" stated in this rule, requires that class attendance be taken and maintained by class period for every instructional day for each student in each school or school program in the school district;

(2) provides excused absences for pregnant and parenting students as follows:

(a) provides at least ten days of excused absences for a student who provides documentation of the birth of the student's child and allows the student a time period to make up the work that the student missed that equals the number of days the student was absent for the birth of a child;

(b) provides excused absences for any additional days missed by a pregnant or parenting student for which a longer period of absence is deemed medically necessary by the student's physician and allows the student a time period to make up the work that the student missed that equals the number of days the student was absent;

(c) provides four days per semester of excused absences, in addition to the number of allowed absences for all students, for a student who provides appropriate documentation of pregnancy or that the student is the parent of a child under the age of thirteen needing care and allows the student a time period to make up the work that the student missed that equals the number of days the student was absent;

(d) clearly states that the pregnant or parenting student is responsible for communicating the student's pregnancy and parenting status to the appropriate school personnel if the student chooses to disclose the information; and

(e) provides that the school district or charter school shall provide a copy of the pregnant and parenting student absence policies to all students in middle, junior high and high schools; and

(3) requires each school to report unexcused absences of two or more classes up to fifty percent of an instructional day as one-half day absence, and the unexcused absence of more than fifty percent of an instructional day to be counted as one full-day absence;

(4) prohibits out-of-school suspension and expulsion as a punishment for unexcused absences and habitual truancy;

(5) uses withdrawal as provided in Section 22-8-2 NMSA 1978 only after exhausting intervention efforts to keep students in educational settings;

(6) provides for early identification of students with unexcused absences, students in need of early intervention, and habitual truants; provides for intervention strategies that focus on keeping students in need of early intervention in an educational setting; and further provides that:

(a) if a student is in need of early intervention, the school district or charter school shall contact the student's parent(s)/guardian(s) to inform them that the student has unexcused absences from school and to discuss possible interventions unless the parent(s)/guardian(s) has contacted the school to explain the absence and the excuse compiles with the school district attendance policy;

(b) a representative of the school district or charter school shall meet with the student in need of early intervention and his or her parent(s)/guardian(s) to identify the causes for the student's unexcused absences, identify what actions can be taken that might prevent the student's unexcused absences, identify possible school district, charter school and community resources to address the causes for the student's unexcused absences, and establish a corrective action plan to address the student's unexcused absences;

(c) the notification to the student's parent(s)/guardian(s) and the meeting with the parent(s)/guardian(s) must be respectful and in a language and in manner that is understandable to the student and the parent(s)/guardian(s);

(d) the corrective action plan must contain follow-up procedures to ensure that the causes for the student's unexcused absences are being addressed;

(e) if the student is a habitual truant, the local school board, charter school or their authorized representatives shall, in addition, give written notice of the habitual truancy by mail to or by personal service on the student's parent(s)/guardian(s); the notice shall include a date, time and place for the parent to meet with the local school district or charter to develop intervention strategies that focus on keeping the student in an educational setting;

(f) if there is another unexcused absence after delivery of a written notice of habitual truancy, the student shall within seven (7) days of this unexcused absence be reported to the probation services office of the judicial district where the student resides;

(g) if the student is a habitual truant the school shall document the following for each student identified as a habitual truant:

(i) attempts of the school to notify the parent that the student had unexcused absences;

(ii) attempts of the school to meet with the parent to discuss intervention strategies; and

(iii) intervention strategies implemented to support keeping the student in school.

A. emphasize a better understanding of tribal customs, religious practices and laws,

B. consider entering into a memorandum of agreement, a memorandum of understanding, or some other form of intergovernmental agreement with Native American tribes,

C. consider respectful and effective ways to notify a parent(s)/guardian(s) of student in need of intervention and habitually truant Native American students,

D. consider follow-up or reinforcement procedures after Native American children have undergone intervention through Native American or other agreed upon resources.

B. Regulated activities: Beyond those activities designated as prohibited in Subsection A of 6.11.2.9 NMAC, all other areas of student conduct may be regulated within legal limits by local school boards as they deem appropriate to local conditions. Conduct by non-students which affects school operations may be regulated within legal limits pursuant to any of the forms of authority described in Subsection B. of 6.11.2.8 NMAC. Activities subject to local school board regulation within legal limits include:

(1) school attendance.