New Mexico mandate
New Mexico Next Step Plan: Grade-by-Grade Career Path Documentation
Section 22-13-1.1 NMSA 1978 requires every student in grades 8–12 to develop and update a Next Step Plan aligned to their district's graduate profile, completed annually within 60 days of the prior school year's end.
In Brief
New Mexico's Next Step Plan law (effective since 2003, updated by 2024 HB171) mandates that each student in grades 8–12 work with a counselor or advisor to create an interim plan at each grade level and finalize a comprehensive plan before graduation. The plan must be aligned to each student's district or charter school's defined graduate profile—ensuring career goals map to real competency outcomes.
Unlike many states' career-planning requirements, New Mexico's law emphasizes collaborative development: the student, parent or guardian, and school advisor (plus any other relevant parties) jointly create and refine the plan. This shared accountability model helps ensure plans reflect not just career interest but realistic family and community support.
What actually requires
Checked against Section 22-13-1.1 NMSA 1978, not against a category description.
Recommended assessment battery for New Mexico districts
Sequenced across the 7th-12th grade arc.
Who New Mexico districts already use for
Real tools and workarounds we found in use for compliance — not a hypothetical shortlist.
What New Mexico's Next Step Plan Law Demands
Related on JobCannon
This page is one of 38 verified career-plan mandate pages JobCannon tracks, each citing a primary statute or regulation — for the New Mexico mandate that source is NMSA 1978 Section 22-13-1.1; NMPED Graduation Manual (HB171). For the broader rollout picture, see career assessments for school districts, or the JobCannon for Business hub.
District-tier pricing
Scale is $199/mo and covers 200 people per billing period — one person, however many assessments they take, and a class-code arrival counts the same as an emailed invite. Growth is $999/mo for 1,000. Above that, or where enrolment should not be metered at all, it is an Enterprise conversation rather than a larger self-serve plan. A district-sized enrolment runs out of the monthly tiers quickly — the Education Licence below prices your whole enrolment per student for the year, assessments uncapped, and adds the full career and skills corpus.
Free
For micro-teams trying the platform
- ▸10 candidate invites/month (resets the 1st of each month)
- ▸All 164+ assessments
- ▸Premium result for every candidate you invite
- ▸Every candidate profile fully open — nothing blurred
- ▸Share link via email or Slack
- ▸Free trial of the coordinator dashboard
Starter
For solo coaches and small HR
- ▸30 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸All 164+ assessments
- ▸Premium report (archetype + blind spots + work-style brief)
- ▸Coach notes per candidate
- ▸PDF export (client-ready)
- ▸Session prep recommendations
- ▸Candidate progress tracking
Team
For startups, teams and HR
- ▸80 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸Everything in Starter
- ▸Team DNA dashboard
- ▸Compatibility matrix
- ▸Conflict-pattern detection
- ▸Compare 2-3 team members
- ▸Manager prep briefings
- ▸Shared admin access (2 seats)
Scale
For agencies, L&D and scale-ups
- ▸200 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸Everything in Team
- ▸Integrity + social-desirability scales (fake-good detection)
- ▸White-label PDFs (your logo)
- ▸Full assessment API (start, score, retrieve results)
- ▸Custom assessment builder (beta)
- ▸Admin seats not billed per seat
- ▸Priority email support
Growth
For high-volume screening without a contract
- ▸1,000 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸Everything in Scale
- ▸Invoice / PO billing, not just card
- ▸Named support contact with a response-time target
- ▸Annual billing option
Enterprise
For 200+ person companies
- ▸Candidate volume set in your contract, all assessments
- ▸Everything in Scale
- ▸SLA (99.9% uptime)
- ▸Dedicated Customer Success
- ▸Custom integrations built against your tenant (Greenhouse and Ashby ship today)
- ▸Annual billing, invoice payments
Self-serve checkout via Stripe — major cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link. Cancel anytime; 14-day money-back on every paid plan. Enterprise via the contact form below.
Education Licence — priced per student, per year
One rate per enrolled student for the academic year, sized for New Mexico district or school-level rollouts. Assessments uncapped, career and skills corpus included — multiply your own enrolment by the band and you have the most this can cost before you talk to us.
$1.25 down to $0.80 per student, per year — assessments uncapped
That multiplication is a ceiling, not a bill. If our self-serve plans would cover the same number of students for less, you are quoted the lower figure — we do not sell an institution its own students back at a higher price than anyone can buy them for on the pricing page.
District
A large school, multi-school district or trust
per year
- ▸Every assessment in the catalogue, retakes included, no per-assessment charge
- ▸Cohort dashboard with cross-school and year-over-year comparison
- ▸Full career and skills corpus — 2,521 careers, 1,863 skills
- ▸Read the corpus live over the API, or take a versioned snapshot
- ▸Named contact, quote letter formatted for procurement
College or university
A university, college or college group
per year
- ▸Every assessment in the catalogue, retakes included, no per-assessment charge
- ▸Cohort dashboard with cross-school and year-over-year comparison
- ▸Full career and skills corpus — 2,521 careers, 1,863 skills
- ▸Read the corpus live over the API, or take a versioned snapshot
- ▸Named contact, quote letter formatted for procurement
State system
A statewide or national programme
per year
- ▸Every assessment in the catalogue, retakes included, no per-assessment charge
- ▸Cohort dashboard with cross-school and year-over-year comparison
- ▸Full career and skills corpus — 2,521 careers, 1,863 skills
- ▸Read the corpus live over the API, or take a versioned snapshot
- ▸Named contact, quote letter formatted for procurement
£350 per school, per year — a flat whole-school licence rather than a per-student rate, because that is the unit UK schools budget in. Same uncapped assessments and same corpus. Excludes VAT.
The ladder starts at 1,301 students. Below that a self-serve plan already covers your whole roll for less than a licence would, so that is what we will point you at — and UK schools have the flat whole-school licence above at any size. Bands are by enrolment, and the rate applies to your whole roll rather than to a seat count you have to predict. Invoiced annually against a purchase order; no per-assessment charge and nothing to top up mid-year. Assessing an institution's enrolled students is covered by the Education Licence, not by a hiring plan. What is in the corpus.
Request a New Mexico district pilot
Tell us how many students you expect to assess in a term and what your review process asks for. If something on your requirements list is not in the product, we will say so in the reply rather than in the pilot.
The statute doesn't explicitly mandate a formal career assessment—the law uses the term 'implied' career development. However, best practice and HB171's graduate-profile alignment suggest a structured discovery process works better than interest alone. JobCannon's Career Match (12 questions, ~2 min) or RIASEC (60 questions, ~15 min) gives counselors and students a grounded foundation for the collaborative planning conversation, especially when paired with the Skills Audit.
New Mexico law does not mandate a specific tool or digital platform—paper plans satisfy the letter of the law. However, digital systems with built-in annual reminders and version history make it far easier for counselors to ensure compliance across all students and grades, and for families to access and review their child's plan. JobCannon handles the workflow automation and archive trail, so your district's documentation is audit-ready.
Yes. JobCannon's RIASEC or Career Match results can populate the 'career interest' piece of the plan. Counselors can use each student's assessment results during the collaborative planning meeting with the student and parents, and the printable Career Guide PDF can be attached to the formal Next Step Plan document or saved in your student information system.
The statute says 'advisor (may include other relevant parties),' so it can be a school counselor, career coach, or teacher. Districts define who leads the planning conversation. JobCannon supports whatever role is designated; counselors, advisors, and even teachers can send bulk invites and track completion across their assigned students.
New Mexico law doesn't prescribe a specific timeline for transfers mid-year—the requirement is to have a plan completed within 60 days of the prior school year's end and updated annually thereafter. For mid-year transfers, best practice is to review any prior-district plan and create or refresh a new one to align with your graduate profile. JobCannon's quick-setup assessments (Career Match, ~2 min) can fast-track a new student's transition planning.
The Next Step Plan mandate does not explicitly require a formal, standardized career-interest assessment—the law uses the term 'implied' rather than 'required,' meaning districts have flexibility in how they discover and document the career interest component.