The spring calendar of the Legislature is in full swing as both regular standing committees and the state budget process are simultaneously underway. This week, Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer testified before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, May 13. His remarks describe the state aid process for this year, the guardrails established within the formula limiting aid reductions and increases from prior year’s budget levels, tax levy cap exemption options for some districts, and the updates to the School Funding Reform Act formula required every three years for cost adjustments through a statutory mechanism called the Education Adequacy Report. Senators on the committee then had the opportunity to question the Commissioner for the next few hours on state aid and other educational issues.
The Senate Education Committee met on Monday, May 12, and considered the following legislation:
1. New Proposed Curriculum Mandate
S-2818, the “Fentanyl and Xylazine Poisoning Awareness Act,” requires school districts to provide instruction on the dangers of fentanyl and xylazine as part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. The bill would also require the Commissioner of Education to provide school districts with age-appropriate resources designed to implement the legislation’s instructional requirements. The NJDOE is also required to post and maintain related information on its website. As amended, the instruction standards adopted by the State Board of Education would occur concurrently with each update of the NJSLS, and the board would be required to review the necessity of this instruction every 15 years. The bill was favorably reported from the Senate Education Committee with Amendments by a vote of 5-0, and has been referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. NJPSA sought amendments to this legislation.
2. Chronic Absenteeism Task Force
S-3776 creates a task force to study the causes of chronic absenteeism and develop recommendations for lowering absenteeism rates. NJPSA will have a seat on the Task Force if this bill is enacted into law. The bill was favorably reported from the Senate Education Committee with Amendments by a vote of 5-0, and now awaits a vote by the full Senate. NJPSA supports the bill.
3. Electric Vehicle Certification Programs
S-2881, as amended, would authorize school districts with automotive programs to enter into a partnership with a private entity to establish electric vehicle certification programs. Under the bill, districts shall issue an electric vehicle certification to each person who successfully completes the training program. The bill would apply to a variety of school districts, including county vocational school districts. As initially proposed, the bill applied only to county vocational school districts. The bill was favorably reported from the Senate Education Committee with Amendments by a vote of 5-0, and now awaits a vote by the full Senate. NJPSA sought and supported amendments to make this program opportunity available in all school districts.
4. “New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act”
Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz and Senator Shirley Turner introduced a committee substitute, S-3910, for a first public discussion. This legislation provides for updates to preschool funding, programming and sets new full day kindergarten requirements. Important provisions of the bill include:
- The creation of a three year preschool expansion pilot program where school districts who currently do not receive preschool aid, would be eligible to apply for the pilot. The pilot program application is to be developed by the Commissioner of Education and overseen by the NJDOE. The pilot is based upon a cost sharing model between the local school district and the state. Additional incentives within the pilot program include a tax levy cap exemption for the three years of the pilot program for districts receiving preschool aid for the first time.
- If a district is already providing full-day preschool for three- and four-year olds, the bill would allow that district to use state-provided preschool education aid for additional purposes designated by the commissioner.
- The bill would effectively codify into statute the state’s existing preschool expansion aid program, and high quality preschool program standards.
- The bill would require districts that do not currently provide full day kindergarten to do so within the next four years (2029-2030).
- Districts will be encouraged and incentivized to work with private providers, as appropriate, within New Jersey’s mixed delivery system for preschool, but not required to do so as an earlier version of the legislation provided.
- The bill provides for a system of self-assessment and evaluation to ensure high quality and ongoing review of the program.
- The bill creates a Universal Preschool Implementation Steering Committee within NJDOE and would require NJDOE to develop a Mixed Delivery Model Preschool Handbook.
- The bill includes a provision referencing a universal statewide kindergarten enrollment date of October 1 of each school year although the bill provisions do seem to allow for some local policy in this area.
The bill was favorably reported from the Senate Education Committee with Amendments by a vote of 3-2, and has been referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. In our initial remarks on the bill, NJPSA supported the overall goals of this legislation to assist districts in providing high quality early childhood programming for students aged three, four and five. We thanked the sponsors for eliminating the mandate to utilize the private providers to provide this programming as many districts have strong programs in place. NJPSA believes this needs to be a local decision based upon the education needs and resources within local communities. NJPSA is seeking amendments to ensure educator participation in the steering committee and the implementation process as well as funding to meet the full day kindergarten mandate. We expect the bill sponsors to continue the conversation on this legislation and we encourage your input on this legislation.
5. Educator Evaluation : Extension of the Moratorium on SGOs and Administrator Goals
NJPSA strongly supports S-4375/A-5077, legislation to extend the statutory pause on the collection of student growth objective (SGO) data initiated pursuant to P.L.2024, c.14. NJPSA successfully obtained amendments that will extend the moratorium to principals, assistant principals and vice principals and their administrator goals. Following the 2024 law that established the New Jersey Educator Evaluation Review Task Force, a NJDOE Working Group has been meeting to continue the Task Force’s work. Specifically, the Working Group is identifying flexibilities with the current law and code that will streamline the evaluation process, develop a new approach to the use of student growth data within evaluations of educators, and incorporate best practices in evaluation into New Jersey’s educator evaluation process.
It is anticipated that a pilot program to test out these new concepts will go into effect for some districts in the fall of 2025, followed by code changes to modify the evaluation process statewide in 2026. The legislation considered on Monday, provides for a moratorium on the collection of new data for SGO purposes and administrator goals until new code is developed (N.J.A.C.6A:10). Additionally, a teacher, principal, assistant principal, or vice-principal who is eligible to attain tenure on or before February 15 would not be required to set SGO or administrator goals for the year in which they are eligible to attain tenure; those eligible after February 15 would be required to do so. (For more information, you can read the task force’s final report here.)
6. Mediation for School Ethics Complaints
S-3600 was posted “for discussion only” and therefore did not receive a vote. This legislation could be considered at a future hearing. As introduced, the bill establishes a mediation process for school ethics complaints. The School Ethics Commission (SEC) would be required to provide an opportunity for a complainant and any school official named in the complaint to engage in mediation to determine whether the complaint may be dismissed without further proceedings. If these parties agree to mediation, the SEC would be required to assign a mediator to conduct a mediation conference. Prior to commencement of the mediation conference, the mediator would require the complainant and any school official named in the complaint to sign a confidentiality pledge to ensure that discussions that occur during the mediation remain confidential. If the mediation results in the complainant dismissing the complaint, the complainant and any school official named in the complaint would be required to sign a written agreement that memorializes the dismissal of the complaint. However, if the complainant did not dismiss the complaint after the mediation conference, the SEC would be required to follow the current procedure established by law to determine whether a school official has violated the School Ethics Act, or a school board member has violated the Code of Ethics for School Board Members. NJPSA is monitoring this legislation.
For further information on any legislation, please contact the NJPSA Government Relations Department.