N.M. Stat. § 21-1-37

There is created the “New Mexico cooperative education program” which shall be administered by the higher education department. 1 The New Mexico cooperative education program shall supplement existing cooperative education programs to allow cooperative education to incorporate employment experience in rural areas, small businesses and fields not included in traditional campus-based programs. The commission [department] shall establish procedures to identify employment opportunities for cooperative education throughout New Mexico in private, governmental and nonprofit sectors and shall work with the public post-secondary institutions to encourage involvement of students in the cooperative education program. The commission [department] shall identify those groups of students and fields of study or employment for which the most severe underrepresentation exists and for which cooperative education shall be encouraged. The program shall include:

A. parallel cooperative education, in which students who are enrolled full-time in public post-secondary institutions may be employed a maximum of twenty hours in a career-related work assignment;

B. alternating cooperative education, in which students who are enrolled full-time in public post-secondary institutions may alternate employment in a career-related field with academic study; and

C. summer cooperative education, in which students who are enrolled full-time in public post-secondary institutions may be employed in a career-related work assignment during the summer months.