In March of 2001, focused monitoring was agreed upon by state special education directors, parent training groups, protection and advocacy agencies, national disability groups and other major stakeholders in special education across the country. There has been a history of problems in states’ education departments monitoring their local public schools to see if they are in compliance with IDEA or Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act, the federal special education law.

Focused monitoring will use the limited monitoring resources to focus on educational results in just a few of the most important areas of educational need in the state and in certain selected districts, rather than emphasizing process and procedural compliance throughout the entire state.

In New Mexico, complaints have come in regarding particular districts, the state department has found the district out of compliance, but the state was unable to follow up in a timely manner to ensure future compliance.

Local New Mexico parents, Protection and Advocacy, and educational administrators met and looked at the most serious problem areas in education. Discussion took place around suspension and discipline problems leading to an increase in school drop out rates. Consensus was reached that drop out rates were New Mexico’s number one area of concern. However, data was inconsistent within and between districts. For example, Albuquerque where over half of all the students in New Mexico reside, has data that shows about a 7.9% drop out rate. Behind closed doors, the data for drop out rates is 33% or as high as 50% in some Albuquerque High Schools. Part of the inconsistency appears to be how the data is collected, but another barrier is the districts’ unwillingness to give data that may reflect district problems and cost the district money.

The focused monitoring committee has selected other issues on which to narrow their monitoring survey. The State department is researching better avenues for collecting accurate drop out rates so this new focused monitoring will be more effective. Monitors have been selected and the process will move forward using this new monitoring format. The committee will meet again in July of 2002 to discuss the next phase of monitoring development.