Guaranteed Payments for Attendance: What Stability Makes Possible

Inside the Family Center at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque, shelves stocked with food, clothing, hygiene products, and household essentials sit just steps away from where students gather for mentorship and support. For many students participating in New Mexico’s Guaranteed Payments for Attendance (GPA) pilot program, a state-funded program administered by the PED, the center has transformed from a school resource into a lifeline.

The GPA program, launched by the New Mexico Public Education Department, provides qualifying high school students experiencing homelessness or housing instability with a $500 monthly stipend in exchange for maintaining attendance, completing coursework, and participating in tutoring and counseling support.

Atrisco Heritage Academy was one of the first schools selected to participate in the pilot initiative. The school currently serves 19 students through the program.

For Brandon Gonzalez, a graduating senior at Atrisco Heritage Academy, the support provided through GPA offered something he said many students in similar situations rarely experience: room to breathe.

“It’s a lot trying to balance school and work at the same time. You definitely see that reflected in your grades,” Gonzalez said. “At one point, I was working almost 30 hours a week. Sometimes I would get out of work at midnight and then have to wake up only six hours later for school.”

Like many students participating in the program, Gonzalez was connected to GPA through the school’s McKinney-Vento program and family support services. From there, the program’s financial support allowed him to reduce some of the pressure that came with balancing school, work, and the everyday survival for youths experiencing housing instability.

I really didn’t know what I wanted to do after graduation,” Gonzalez said. “But this program gave me more freedom to choose.”

That freedom, he said, opened doors that previously felt out of reach.

Through GPA, students at Atrisco Heritage Academy have been able to participate in internships, after-school activities, and leadership opportunities that many otherwise would have had to turn down because of work obligations and financial strain.

Gonzalez said one internship experience at the New Mexico Roundhouse shifted his outlook entirely. Now, Gonzalez hopes a future in legislative work is something he can consider.

“If it wasn’t for this program, I wouldn’t have had the money or opportunity to do it,” he said. “That internship changed my views and made me realize that’s something I might want to do now.”

For Jacquelyn Valdez, another graduating senior in the GPA program, the impact has been simpler, but no less significant.

“Before this, I honestly just didn’t want to come to school,” Valdez said. “I was always late. But this program helped a lot and lead me to find a purpose.”

Valdez said the financial support relieved pressure to immediately enter the workforce while still in high school, allowing her to focus more directly on academics and graduation.

“This money helps me not to have to stress about getting a job, I can just focus on my education,” she said.

That support system extends beyond the monthly stipend itself.

The students spoke inside the school’s Family Center, a campus resource hub designed to support students and families with basic needs and wraparound services. According to Atrisco Heritage Academy, the center assists with food resources, clothing, utility support, counseling referrals, tutoring referrals, and family engagement services.

The combination of financial support and school-based wraparound services is what students say makes the program effective.

“I think it’s given me more freedom – not just for school, but for after-school activities and other programs we want to do,” Gonzalez said.

He added that many students in the program are facing realities that often go unseen by the public.

“A lot of the time, when people create programs like this, they only look at the numbers and the money,” Gonzalez said. “If they don’t see the results they want on paper, funding gets cut.”

The true impact on students, he said, cannot always be measured by traditional data points alone.

“Some students in this program have gone through way tougher hardships than I have,” he said. “A lot of these kids don’t have homes, and maybe their grades don’t skyrocket, but you can definitely see they’re happier. At the end of the day, I feel like the students are what matter.”

Valdez echoed that sentiment, saying student voices should remain central in conversations about the future of the program.

“People shouldn’t just look at papers or data,” she said. “They should actually go out, talk to students, and see how the program changes lives.”

“If I had one thing to say to the people funding and creating this program,” Gonzalez said, “it’s thank you. And I hope future students continue getting the same help we are getting now, because these problems aren’t going away if we don’t deal with them now.”