A. Any qualified student or person eligible to become a qualified student attending a public school, a state institution or a private school approved by the department in any grade from first through the twelfth grade of instruction is entitled to the free use of instructional material. Any student enrolled in an early childhood education program as defined by Section 22-13-3 NMSA 1978 or person eligible to become an early childhood education student as defined by that section attending a private early childhood education program approved by the department is entitled to the free use of instructional material.
B. Instructional material shall be distributed to school districts, state institutions and private schools as agents for the benefit of students entitled to the free use of the instructional material.
C. Any school district, state institution or private school as agent receiving instructional material pursuant to the Instructional Material Law [22-15-1 NMSA 1978] is responsible for distribution of the instructional material for use by eligible students and for the safekeeping of the instructional material.
HISTORY:
1953 77-13-7, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 16, § 211; 1975, ch. 270, § 7; 1977, ch. 99, § 1; 1993, ch. 226, § 39; 1997, ch. 100, § 3; 2003, ch. 394, § 5; 2009, ch. 221, § 5.
Editor’s notes.
Laws 2003, ch. 143, § 2, effective July 1, 2004, and contingent upon adoption of an amendment to Article 12, Section 6 of the constitution of New Mexico, repeals Articles 1, 2, 13, 13A and 15 of Chapter 22 NMSA 1978. The constitutional amendment was approved at the special election on September 23, 2003, giving the repeal full force and effect as of July 1, 2004. However, Laws 2003, Chapter 143 was repealed by Laws 2004, Chapter 27, § 29, nullifying the repeal by Laws 2003, Chapter 143 and leaving the statutory provisions as they were prior to the attempted repeal in 2003. Article 13A of Chapter 22 was additionally repealed, without contingency, by Laws 2003, ch. 153, § 73, effective April 4, 2003.
Amendment Notes.
The 2009 amendment, effective July 1, 2010, in (A), substituted “department” for “state board” twice, and deleted the former last sentence, which read: “Any student in an adult basic education program approved by the commission on higher education is entitled to the free use of instructional material from the instructional material bureau of the department of education”; deleted “adult basic education centers” following “private schools” or similar language in (B) and (C); and made a related change.
Notes to Decisions
Violation of state constitution.
Instructional Material Law (IML), which provided books to students who attended private schools, violated N.M. Const. art XII § 3 as that constitutional provision forbade the provision of books for use by students attending private schools, whether such schools were secular or sectarian; furthermore, the IML violated N.M. Const. art XII § 3 as it provided support to private schools because those schools did not have to buy instructional materials with money they obtained by tuition or donations and they could divert that money to other uses in their schools. Weinbaum v. Skandera, 2015-NMSC-036, 367 P.3d 838, 2015 N.M. LEXIS 378 (N.M. 2015).