By Michael Kaelber, Esq., Coordinator of Continuing Legal Education and Research, LEGAL ONE
Over the past year the New Jersey Legislature has enacted over 150 pieces of legislation. This article will address those enactments which affect New Jersey’s public schools with a particular emphasis on those which affect school business administrators and the work they do.
P.L. 2024 c. 103 – The Department of Health, in consultation with the Department of Education, shall develop informational materials on Type 1 diabetes, which will be posted on the Department of Education’s website. Each school district is required to make the informational materials available to the parents or guardians of the students enrolled in the district. Informational materials shall include but not be limited to a description of Type 1 diabetes risk factors and warning signs, a recommendation that parents or guardian consult with the student’s primary care physician, the development of an appropriate treatment plan and the provision of diabetes care in the school pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:40-12.11.
P.L. 2024, c.106; P.L. 2025, c. 22; P.L. 2025, c.72 (6/30/25) These three pieces of legislation address the issue of the reduced number of newspapers published in print format. The legislation allows public bodies to continue using newspapers for required public notices, like meeting notices under the Open Public Meetings Act, and legal advertisements, regardless of format, first until March 1, 2025, then June 30, 2025, and now March 1, 2026. After that date, whenever a public entity, like a board of education, is required by law to publish or advertise a legal notice, it will publish or advertise the legal notice on its own official website. The website will need to be accessible and available to the public free of charge, and a direct hyperlink to the legal notices will be conspicuously placed on the website’s homepage. The Secretary of State will establish a webpage which will include hyperlinks to the legal notices’ webpage of each public entity and a hyperlink to the directory of legal notices. For calendar year 2026, each public entity will, at least twice a month, provide an advertisement in an eligible online news publication that states the complete text of each legal notice on the public entity’s website and a hyperlink to the Secretary of State’s directory.
P.L. 2025, c.20 modifies number of signatures required for candidates to be placed on primary, general, nonpartisan municipal, and school election ballots. Nominating petitions for candidates to be voted upon at a school election shall now be signed by at least 25 persons, one of whom may be the candidate, and filed with the board secretary on or before 4 p.m. on the 50th day preceding the date of the April school election or with the county clerk on or before 4 p.m. of the last Monday in July preceding the November school election. Previously only 10 signatures were required.
P.L. 2025, c.37 requires school districts to adopt policies concerning student use of sunscreen and sun-protective clothing, such as hats and sunglasses, at school and school-sponsored functions. Documentation from a physician or other licensed health care professional is not required. The policy may require written permission from a parent or guardian but may not require school personnel to assist a student in applying sunscreen. The act takes effect in the 2025-2026 school year.
P.L. 2025, c.40 establishes criminal penalties for the production or dissemination of deceptive audio or visual media, commonly known as “deepfakes.” Violations for “deepfake” production or dissemination can rise to the level of third- or fourth-degree crimes with penalties of up to five years imprisonment and a $30,000 fine, with consecutive sentences and no merger of convictions. Civil actions are also available with actual damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees and costs being available. The law does not apply to disclosure to a school administrator, attorney, family member, or other advocate for purposes of reporting conduct or in the furtherance of an investigation into that conduct. A more thorough discussion of this legislation may be found in School Law Central, Issue 11, June 25, 2025.
P.L. 2025, c.76 requires the Commissioner of Education to establish a DOE grant program for public schools to purchase and install point-of-use filtered bottle-filling stations and filtered faucets. Grant availability will be advertised on the DOE website. Priority will be given to public schools that demonstrate significant water quality issues, as evidenced by test results, reports from the DEP or other reliable data sources and to public schools that have not already installed point-of-use filtered bottle-filling stations or filtered faucets. The Commissioner may, within six months, develop and disseminate guidance to public schools to assist in the development of plans for installing point-of-use filtered bottle-filling stations or filtered faucets and regularly replacing filter cartridges. By July 1, 2026, the Commissioner shall report to the Legislature on the implementation of the grant program, including the number of grants awarded and how much additional funding would be needed to meet the total demand in all public schools.
P.L. 2025, c.94 requires public and certain non-public schools, beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, 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 public school. The no-fee option shall be provided at a time and place that is convenient for students, parents, and guardian use. Communications requesting payment for school meals, field trips, activity fees, or other goods or services must include information on the direct payment option and any fees associated with the use of the payment processing platform. Any contract entered into with a third party vendor for the development or use of a payment processing platform shall require the platform to provide users with clear information on all fees charged, the average annual fees incurred by a user and the availability of an alternative no-fee means to make direct payments through the board of education, board of trustees, or nonpublic school.
P.L. 2025, c.95 – Current law requires the submission of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or its state equivalent as a prerequisite for high school graduation for the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes, unless a waiver is submitted. This legislation requires that any FAFSA requirement waiver form developed by the NJDOE, a board of education or charter school may request only the student’s name, telephone number, email address, date and signature of the person submitting the waiver. School districts and charter schools are prohibited from using or disclosing the waiver or information within the waiver without the informed consent of the student or student’s parent or guardian. The NJDOE, school district or charter school that uses and/or develops an optional waiver form shall include language consistent with the prohibition on information disclosure in a prominent location on the waiver.
P.L. 2025, c.100 establishes the New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act. The Act requires that all school districts serving elementary grades offer free, full day kindergarten to all five-year-olds by the 2029-2030 school year. Students must be five by October 1 to enroll, with the caveat that the school district may admit students who turn five after October 1 if they meet entrance requirements established by board policy. School districts can meet the free full day kindergarten requirement through a sending-receiving agreement with an adjacent school district. The Act creates a three-year preschool expansion grant pilot program. School districts which participate in the pilot, which receive preschool aid for the first time, are permitted to exceed the local tax levy cap by the local share of preschool education costs. Experienced districts already providing three- and four-year-old preschool receive flexibility in use of preschool aid – summer programs, preschool staff professional development, facilities improvements and transportation services for preschool students. To participate in the preschool pilot program, a school district must be providing full-day kindergarten, meet other Commissioner-required criteria and must exercise “due diligence” in outreach to mixed-delivery preschool providers such as private preschools licensed child-care providers and Head Start programs. The Act creates a Universal Preschool Implementation Steering Committee within the NJDOE, which shall evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot program and make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature.
P.L. 2025, c.101 permits contracts for preschool education services, provided by a licensed childcare provider or Head Start program and supported by preschool education aid, to be awarded by resolution of board of education at a public meeting without public advertising for bids or bidding for a term of not more than three years.
P.L. 2025, c. 102 amends the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations act language concerning Preschool Education Aid to align that language with the language in P.L. 2025, c. 100, the New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act, that modified the allocation of Preschool Education Aid.
P.L. 2025, c. 104 requires that all public and nonpublic schools participating in the National School Lunch and federal School Breakfast Programs must comply with federal nutrition standards for those programs as well as competitive foods sold in schools. Competitive foods are all food and beverage items sold at school, other than meals served through the USDA meal programs, on school campus at any time during the school day. Federal regulations now require that 80 percent of weekly grains served must be whole-grain rich, schools must reduce the lunch meal sodium content by 15 percent and the breakfast meal sodium content by 10 percent beginning July 1, 2027 and must lower added sugar limits for breakfast cereals, yogurt and flavored milk beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. Beginning in the 2027-2028 school year added sugars must be less than 10 percent of the calories per week in the school lunch and breakfast programs.
P.L. 2025, c. 112 requires that a public school that includes any of the grades seven through 12 and that issues student identification cards shall have printed on the back of the student identification cards the telephone number for mental health and suicide crisis resources, as determined by the Commissioner of Human Services, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education. A public school may, in addition to the telephone number for mental health and suicide crisis resources, provide contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or any other mental health support service. The Act applies to new student and replacement student identification cards issued in the 2026-2027 school year.
P.L. 2025, c. 147 allows TPAF members who have had a break in service due to reduction in force, regionalization or extended personal leave, for up to ten consecutive years, to maintain their enrollment and return to service at the same TPAF pension tier. Previously, TPAF membership would end after a two-year break in service and reenrollment would be at the current TPAF pension tier for new enrollees. The legislation also extends the length of time permitted for certain TPAF members who left service for qualifying reasons from 10 years to 15 years so long as pension contributions were not withdrawn.
For school business administrators to make informed decisions, it is important to be aware of recent legislative developments, particularly those that have a direct impact on school business operations. A review of the information set forth in this article will go a long way to informing school administrators how to best keep the school district in compliance with recent enactments and reduce the potential for liability.