Debbie Bradley and Jennie Lamon, NJPSA Government Relations
This week, the State Legislature resumed its normal schedule of committee meetings which had been paused during budget earnings to consider the FY 2026 budget proposal. A new state budget deal must be reached and enacted into law by June 30th.
On Thursday, May 8th, the Assembly Education Committee considered and favorably released the following bills:
A-4762 – Designates May of each year as “Water Safety Month” in New Jersey and encourages NJDOE to provide resources on water safety.
A-4763 – Requires development of an educational fact sheet on water safety for public and nonpublic schools: requires school districts to provide information to parents and guardians on swim lessons.
This legislation requires the Commissioner of Education to develop an educational fact sheet on water safety which includes information on:
- How parents can reduce their child’s risk of injury or drowning;
- The role of water safety education courses and swimming lessons;
- The proper use of flotation devices and
- The importance of monitoring water conditions and swimming in areas monitored by a lifeguard.
Once the Commissioner makes this educational fact sheet available to school districts, districts will annually distribute it to students and their families. School districts are required to develop a list of local locations where swimming lessons and age-appropriate water safety courses are available. NJPSA, while supportive of the bill, sought an amendment to have the NJDOE develop and maintain the list of water safety courses available across the counties of the state.
A-5263/ S-3961 requires boards of education to offer a no fee option to parents for making school lunch and other payments and requires payment processing platforms used by school districts to provide information on user fees.
Under the bill, any contract entered into on or after the bill’s effective date by a board of education with a third party vendor for the development or use of a payment processing platform is to require the payment processing platform to provide users with clear information on:
- all fees charged for use of the platform;
- the average annual fees incurred by a user of the platform; and
- the availability of an alternative no-fee means to make direct payments through the board of education.
The bill requires a board of education to offer students, parents and guardians a no-fee option for making direct payments for school meals, field trips, activity fees, or other goods or services provided by or distributed through the school district, or any school, group, or club thereof. The option is to be provided at a time and place that is convenient for student, parent, and guardian use.
Finally, the bill requires that any communication from the board,or any school, group, or club thereof, requesting payment for school meals, field trips, activity fees, or other goods or services is to include information on:the direct payment option required pursuant to the bill’s provisions; and the fees associated with use of any payment processing platform that may be used to make the payment.The bill clarifies that its provisions apply to the boards of trustees of charter schools. NJPSA supports this legislation.
A-5469/S-4162 limits the disclosure of certain educational records in order to protect student privacy. Specifically, the bill modifies the waiver or template form developed by the NJDOE, a local school district or a charter school to be used when a high school senior chooses not to fill out the financial aid application or FAFSA. Current law requires this year’s high school seniors to fill out such financial aid applications or file a waiver in order to graduate high school as part of a three year statewide pilot program. The legislation prohibits districts and charter schools from using or disclosing the waiver form or any personal information contained within the waiver without informed parental consent. Districts must comply with state and federal protections of student’s educational records including the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
The bill requires the NJDOE to include language consistent with the prohibition on disclosure in any optional waiver template developed by the Department or school districts. The bill further grandfathers any waiver forms that were submitted prior to this bill being enacted. NJPSA supports this legislation as a further protection of student educational records.
S-3982/A-5492 establishes a working group within the NJDOE to develop recommendations regarding methods to improve the development and implementation of IEPs and to ensure parental involvement in the IEP process. NJPSA would have both principal and special education directors as members of the working group. Additionally, the bill would require local districts to provide information to parents prior to the annual IEP review meeting in order to promote parental engagement at the annual review. Specifically, the bill would require districts to provide a written statement of a student’s current levels of academic and functional performance at least two business days prior to the annual meeting. Additionally, this statement must include a list of names of any required IEP team members who are seeking excusal from participation in the IEP meeting accompanied by any excused team member’s input regarding the programs and services that the IEP team member is responsible for. Parents are also invited to provide input and feedback regarding the programs and services proposed in the student’s IEP.
NJPSA worked to obtain amendments to the original version of this legislation which would have included draft IEPs being developed prior to the annual meeting and submitted to parents for review in advance of the meeting contrary to New Jersey practice.
The Assembly Children, Families and Food Security also met on Thursday, May 8th also met and favorably released the following NJPSA tracked bills.
A-1406 requires public schools to comply with more stringent school lunch and breakfast nutrition standards adopted by USDA in 2012.
This bill would require a school in New Jersey participating in the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program to comply with the most stringent nutrition standards adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture and published in the Federal Register, or any other more stringent nutrition standards adopted at the federal level in the future.
A-2367 Establishes public awareness campaign on dangers of social media use to minors; appropriates $500,000.
The purpose of the campaign is to help the public, and in particular parents and guardians, better respond to the needs of minors, and utilize current research findings, including those arising from the United States Surgeon General’s May 2023 advisory on social media and youth mental health which found that up to 95 percent of American minors between ages 13-17 report using a social media platform and more than a third saying they use social media “almost constantly.”
Under the bill, the Department of Education, in consultation with the Commissioner of Health, will develop and implement a public awareness campaign on the dangers of social media use to minors through media outlets which include, but are not limited to: Statewide newspapers, radio, public service announcements, social media, television ads, and any other media outlets deemed appropriate by the Commissioner of Education, no later than 180 days after this bill is enacted. The public awareness campaign builds on the progress of the Commission on the Effects of Social Media Usage on Adolescents established by law on July 24, 2023. NJPSA Supports this bill.
We will be back under the golden dome again on Monday, May 12th. The Senate Education Committee is meeting to consider extending the statutory pause on the collection of SGOs, requiring school districts to provide instruction on the dangers of fentanyl and xylazine, authorizing county vocational school districts to establish electric vehicle certification programs, establishing a mediation process for school ethics complaints, establishing a Chronic Absenteeism Task Force, and codifying preschool expansion aid. Please be sure to tune in next week to see what happens with these pieces of legislation next week. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about the legislative process, or becoming involved with the NJPSA Legislative Committee, please reach out to the NJPSA GR Department at any time dbradely@njpsa.org, jlamon@njpsa.org, cnelson@njpsa.org. Thank you for your advocacy, and for all that you do!