The Senate Education Committee met on Thursday, February 15, 2024, where testimony on a bill to provide a tax levy cap adjustment for certain school districts experiencing reductions in State school aid dominated the majority of the hearing. S-2434 (Zwicker), would provide for an allowable adjustment to the tax levy growth limitation for a school district that experiences a reduction in State school aid in the 2023-2024 school year or the 2024-2025 school year pursuant to the provisions of P.L.2018, c.67, which is commonly referred to as “S2.” The amount of the allowable adjustment equals the difference between the amount of State aid received by the school district in the previous school year and the amount of State aid received by the school district in the 2023-2024 school year or the 2024-2025 school year. Under current law, a school district is generally prohibited from increasing its property tax levy by more than two percent compared to the previous school year. This limited increase is often referred to as a “tax levy growth limitation” or a “property tax cap.” However, State law authorizes certain allowable adjustments to the general two percent limitation, thereby permitting a district to account for certain increases in items such as enrollment, health care costs, and certain normal and accrued liability pension contributions. The Senate Education Committee released the bill by a vote of (4 to 1). NJPSA is Neutral on this legislation.
Another curriculum bill was passed by the Committee on Thursday. S-2335 (Stack/McKnight) requires school districts to provide instruction on history and contributions of Latino and Hispanic Americans as part of implementation of New Jersey Student Learning Standards. NJPSA, working with other stakeholders, was able to secure an important amendment changing the implementation time of this bill to align with the standards review process undertaken by the State Board of Education. The Committee unanimously adopted the amendments supported by NJPSA, and then favorably advanced this bill. NJPSA Supports this bill, as amended.
The Committee also advanced a bill establishing a pilot program in the NJ Department of Education to use therapy dogs in public elementary school wellness programs, S-1253 (Beach/Bucco) would establish a three-year pilot program to assess the academic and health benefits associated with the use of therapy dogs in public elementary school wellness programs. A therapy dog is a dog that has been trained, evaluated, and registered with a handler to provide animal assisted therapy and other animal assisted activities within a school or other facility. Some research suggests that the use of therapy dogs in schools is associated with improvements in school attendance, confidence, motivation, and reading and writing skills. Under the bill, a school district that wants to participate in the pilot program is required to submit an application to the commissioner. The application is required to include, but need not be limited to: the number of elementary schools in the school district; the number of students enrolled in each elementary school; information on student participation in wellness programs at each elementary school; and information on how the school district plans to use therapy dogs to promote student wellness. The commissioner will select two districts in each of the southern, central, and northern regions of the State to participate in the program and will seek a cross section of school districts from urban, suburban, and rural areas of the State.The Committee unanimously advanced this bill. NJPSA supports this legislation.
Also on Thursday, the Committee advanced S-1421 (Singleton), a bill that would require the school report card to include information about placement of graduates, including apprenticeships. School performance reports contain information on a number of student outcomes, including graduation and dropout rates, and post-secondary school enrollment. This bill would require the school performance report to contain additional information about the number of students achieving placement after graduating from high school. Under the bill, placement would include placement in an apprenticeship. The Committee voted to unanimously advance this bill. NJPSA is Neutral on this legislation.
A bill sponsored by Senator Ruiz (S-2498) directs the Commissioner of Education to establish and maintain a common application for substitute teachers and a web portal to which a substitute teacher may submit a single common application for employment at a public school of the State. The common application is to be made available and the web portal is required to be fully operational within 90 days of the bill’s effective date. Under the bill, the common application and web portal will:
(1) maximize the ability of substitute teachers to connect with public schools that have employment openings;
(2) increase the degree of information sharing regarding employment opportunities for substitute teachers; and
(3) maintain high standards for data privacy and security. The Committee unanimously advanced this bill. NJPSA Supports this legislation.
The Committee also unanimously advanced S-2505, also sponsored by Senator Ruiz, that would direct the Commissioner of Education to establish and maintain an educator common application and web portal, which is required to be fully operational within 90 days of the bill’s effective date. The purpose of the web portal is to allow an educator to submit a single common application to apply for employment at the public schools of the State. The Committee also unanimously advanced this bill. NJPSA Supports this legislation.
A few notes about what was not on the agenda on Thursday. Originally, S-1559, a bill that would establish a three-year pilot program in DOE to support school district programs to increase length of school day or school year was scheduled to be heard for “discussion only” (no vote was scheduled), but was removed from the agenda prior to the hearing. As the week went on, the Senate Education committee continued to evolve and two other bills that were initially scheduled to have a hearing on Thursday were pulled from the agenda. S-2333 is the controversial, NJEA initiated bill that would require a board of education to directly employ certain professionals; permits a board of education to contract for certain personnel; and permits the use of virtual or remote instruction for public school students in certain circumstances. S-2333 was originally posted for consideration before the Committee on Thursday, but was pulled from the agenda. Finally, S-2421, otherwise known as the “Freedom to Read Act”, seeks to establish requirements for library material in public school libraries and public libraries; and looks to protect school library media specialists and librarians from harassment. After heavy stakeholder engagement and several amendments, the sponsor felt it best to hold the bill for now, and expects to see it on an agenda in early March.
NJPSA would like to offer a special thank you to Anthony Scotto who was ready to come to Trenton to provide testimony on S-2333 before it was pulled from the agenda.
If you are interested in getting more actively engaged with government relations, please reach out at any time to: governmentrelations@njpsa.org. We would love to work with you! As always, if you have any questions about any of the bills included here, please reach out to your NJPSA GR team at any time. Thank you for your time, and for all that you do. We hope that you get to enjoy the long weekend!