Students with disabilities who had to leave the state in order to attend high schools that met their needs are now eligible for the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill into law on Monday that changes the scholarship requirements.
Previously, students had to go to high school in New Mexico in order to receive the lottery scholarship. But if their high school couldn’t accommodate their disability, and they went to high school out of state, they were out of luck.
Pat Osborne is with the center for Development and Disability at at the University of New Mexico. She said high schools in New Mexico are not required to have disability support programs, but universities are. Now that these students can get the lottery scholarship, Osborne said, they could have more access to resources right in their own backyards.
“Essentially what they would do is the student would come home and then they could actually receive services and support through a disability office,” she said.
Osborne said students could work with note-takers, get extra time on tests, or be able to take exams in different locations.