N.M. Stat. § 22-1-2 (2026)

As used in the Public School Code:

    A. "academic proficiency" means mastery of the subject-matter knowledge and
skills specified in state academic content and performance standards for a student's
grade level;

   B. "charter school" means a school authorized by a chartering authority to operate
as a public school;

   C. "commission" means the public education commission;

   D. "department" means the public education department;
    E. "home school" means the operation by the parent of a school-age person of a
home study program of instruction that provides a basic academic educational program,
including reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science;

    F. "instructional support provider" means a person who is employed to support the
instructional program of a school district, including educational assistant, school
counselor, social worker, school nurse, speech-language pathologist, psychologist,
physical therapist, occupational therapist, recreational therapist, marriage and family
therapist, interpreter for the deaf and diagnostician;

    G. "licensed school employee" means teachers, school administrators and
instructional support providers;

   H. "local school board" means the policy-setting body of a school district;

   I. "local superintendent" means the chief executive officer of a school district;

   J. "parent" includes a guardian or other person having custody and control of a
school-age person;

    K. "private school" means a school, other than a home school, that offers on-site
programs of instruction and that is not under the control, supervision or management of
a local school board;

    L. "public school" means that part of a school district that is a single attendance
center in which instruction is offered by one or more teachers and is discernible as a
building or group of buildings generally recognized as either an elementary, middle,
junior high or high school or any combination of those and includes a charter school;

   M. "school" means a supervised program of instruction designed to educate a
student in a particular place, manner and subject area;

   N. "school administrator" means a person licensed to administer in a school district
and includes school principals, central district administrators and charter school head
administrators;

    O. "school-age person" means a person who is at least five years of age prior to
12:01 a.m. on September 1 of the school year, who has not received a high school
diploma or its equivalent and who has not reached the person's twenty-second birthday
on the first day of the school year and meets other criteria provided in the Public School
Finance Act [Chapter 22, Article 8 NMSA 1978];

    P. "school building" means a public school, an administration building and related
school structures or facilities, including teacher housing, that is owned, acquired or
constructed by the school district as necessary to carry out the functions of the school
district;
   Q. "school bus private owner" means a person, other than a school district, the
department, the state or any other political subdivision of the state, that owns a school
bus;

   R. "school district" means an area of land established as a political subdivision of
the state for the administration of public schools and segregated geographically for
taxation and bonding purposes;

    S. "school employee" includes licensed and nonlicensed employees of a school
district;

   T. "school principal" means the chief instructional leader and administrative head of
a public school;

    U. "school year" means the total number of contract days offered by public schools
in a school district during a period of twelve consecutive months;

   V. "secretary" means the secretary of public education;

    W. "state agency" or "state institution" means the New Mexico military institute, New
Mexico school for the blind and visually impaired, New Mexico school for the deaf, New
Mexico boys' school, girls' welfare home, New Mexico youth diagnostic and
development center, Sequoyah adolescent treatment center, Carrie Tingley crippled
children's hospital, New Mexico behavioral health institute at Las Vegas and any other
state agency responsible for educating resident children;

   X. "state educational institution" means an institution enumerated in Article 12,
Section 11 of the constitution of New Mexico;

   Y. "substitute teacher" means a person who holds a certificate to substitute for a
teacher in the classroom;

    Z. "teacher" means a person who holds a level one, two or three-A license and
whose primary duty is classroom instruction or the supervision, below the school
principal level, of an instructional program or whose duties include curriculum
development, peer intervention, peer coaching or mentoring or serving as a resource
teacher for other teachers;

   AA. "certified school instructor" means a licensed school employee; and

   BB. "certified school employee" or "certified school personnel" means a licensed
school employee.

History: 1978 Comp., § 22-1-2, enacted by Laws 2003, ch. 153, § 3; 2004, ch. 27, § 13;
2005, ch. 313, § 3; 2005, ch. 315, § 1; 2007, ch. 309, § 1; 2009, ch. 217, § 1; 2010, ch.
116, § 1; 2015, ch. 58, § 2; 2015, ch. 108, § 1; 2019, ch. 206, § 1; 2019, ch. 207, § 1.
                                    ANNOTATIONS

Repeals. — Laws 2004, ch. 27, § 29 repealed Laws 2003, ch. 143, § 2, which would
have repealed this section.

Cross references. — For the public education commission and public education
department, see 9-24-1 NMSA 1978.

The 2019 amendment, effective June 14, 2019, revised the definitions of "school-age
person" and "certified school instructor" as used in the Public School Code; in
Subsection O, deleted "A maximum age of twenty-one shall be used for a person who is
classified as special education membership as defined in Section 22-8-21 NMSA 1978
or as a resident of a state institution" and added "and who has not reached the person’s
twenty-second birthday on the first day of the school year and meets other criteria
provided in the Public School Finance Act"; and in Subsection AA, after "means a",
deleted "teacher or instructional support provider" and added "licensed school
employee".

Laws 2019, ch. 206, § 1 and Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 1, both effective June 14, 2019,
enacted identical amendments to this section. The section was set out as amended by
Laws 2019, ch. 207, § 1. See 12-1-8 NMSA 1978.

2015 Amendments. — Laws 2015, ch. 108, § 1, effective July 1, 2015, added a new
Subsection B, which defined "charter school"; and in Subsection N, after "principals",
deleted "and", and after "district administrators", added "and charter school head
administrators".

Laws 2015, ch. 58, § 2, effective June 19, 2015, deleted Subsection B, relating to
"adequate yearly progress", and redesignated the succeeding subsections accordingly.

The 2010 amendment, effective May 19, 2010, deleted former Subsection E, which
defined "forty-day report" to mean the report of qualified student membership and
students eligible to be qualified students that are enrolled in private school or home
school for the first forty days of school.

Temporary provisions. — Laws 2010, ch. 116, § 9 provided that references in the
Public School Code pertaining to the fortieth-day or forty-day report of public school
membership or enrollment shall be deemed to be references to the first reporting date,
which is the second Wednesday in October; references pertaining to the eightieth-day
or eighty-day report of public school membership or enrollment shall be deemed to be
references to the second reporting date, which is the second Wednesday in December;
and references pertaining to the one-hundred twentieth-day or one-hundred twenty-day
report of public school membership or enrollment shall be deemed to be references to
the third reporting date, which is the second Wednesday in February.
As the public schools transition from former reporting dates to new reporting dates, the
public education department may use any combination of former and new reporting
dates as necessary to develop membership and cost projections and budgets for the
2010-2011 school year.

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, in Subsection G, after "recreational
therapist", added "marriage and family therapist".

The 2007 amendment, effective June 15, 2007, added Subsection A.

The 2005 amendment, effective April 7, 2005, changed the statutory reference in
Subsection O from Section 22-8-2 NMSA 1978 to Section 22-8-21 NMSA 1978;
changed the name of the New Mexico school for the visually handicapped to the New
Mexico school for the blind and visually impaired in Subsection W; and provided in
Subsection Z that a teacher is a person whose duties include curriculum development,
peer intervention, peer coaching or mentoring or serving as a resource teacher for other
teachers.

The 2004 amendment, effective May 19, 2004, amended Subsection A to change state
board to department; deleted the definition of "commercial advertiser" in Subsection B
and substituted in its place a definition of "commission, amended Subsection C to
change state department of public education to public education department, deleted
"librarian" from the definition of "instructional support provider" in Subsection F, inserted
new Subsection V for the definition of "secretary" and redesignated Subsections V to
CC as Subsections W to BB.