This week, the Assembly Education Committee met and advanced a package of bills aimed at improving teacher recruitment and retention, including a bill inspired by an NJPSA member (A-1676)! On March 4th, the Assembly Education Committee approved the following bills.
A Bill Establishing A Grow Your Own Teacher Loan Redemption Program in HESSA
A-1619, sponsored by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, and Assemblywoman Shama A. Haider, would establish the Grow Your Own Teacher Loan Redemption Program. The program would provide for the redemption of a portion of eligible student loan expenses for each year of full-time employment as a certified teacher in the school district from which the individual graduated high school or a district in which the individual has resided for more than five years. Program participants would be required to teach in the district for at least five years and would qualify for redemption of up to $10,000 of principal and interest of eligible student loan expenses for each full year of employment (total redemption amount not to exceed $50,000 for five years of employment). To qualify, the district must be experiencing a shortage of teachers as determined by the New Jersey Department of Education. Prior to release, The committee amended the bill to: provide that a school district, as used in the bill, means and includes a school district, charter school, and renaissance school project; clarify in certain portions of the bill that an individual is eligible to participate in the program if the individual is employed by a school district with a shortage of teachers located in the jurisdiction in which the applicant has resided for more than five years; and make technical corrections to include gender-neutral language. NJPSA Supports this bill.
A Bill Removing Obstacles to Teacher Certification for Certain Candidates
A-1669, sponsored by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, and Assemblywoman Rosy Bagolie, would eliminate the requirement that a teacher candidate complete a basic skills test. Specifically, this bill eliminates the requirement that a candidate seeking a certificate of eligibility, a certificate of eligibility with advanced standing, a provisional certificate, or a standard instructional certificate complete a Commissioner of Education-approved test of basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills including, but not limited to, the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test, in order to obtain any of these certificates. As reported, the bill includes the changes required by technical review, which has been performed. NJPSA Supports this bill.
A-1676, sponsored by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt and Assemblyman Sterley S. Stanley, would require the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), in consultation with the Department of Education (DOE), to establish a database of novice teachers to assist school districts in filling staffing vacancies and requires the DOLWD, in consultation with the DOE, to hold three job fairs per year. Prior to advancing this bill, the Committee amended the bill to The committee amended the bill to: include approved private schools for students with disabilities in the bill’s definition of school district; require the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Department of Education, to establish and maintain the novice teacher database; require the Commissioner of Education to provide certain listed information to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development for inclusion in the database; require the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Department of Education, to hold three job fairs per year; require the Commissioner of Education to invite school districts to participate in the job fairs and the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development to notify novice teachers included in the database of the date, time, and location of each job fair; and permit the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development to charge employer participants a fee to participate in a job fair as outlined under the bill. The genesis of this bill was an idea submitted by an NJPSA member as part of our August 2023 Staffing Survey. NJPSA Supports this bill.
A Bill Establishing the New Jersey Student Teacher Scholarship Program
A-2362, sponsored by Assemblyman Chris Tully, Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr, and Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, establishes the New Jersey Student Teacher Scholarship Program in the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority to reduce financial barriers to teacher certification. The program is to provide scholarships to students completing required clinical practice through a certificate of eligibility with advanced standing educator preparation program at an institution of higher education in the State. A student is eligible to receive a scholarship of up to $7,200 for each semester of full time clinical practice completed in a school in the State. NJPSA Supports this bill.
A-3340, sponsored by Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald, would allow an advanced practice nurse and a physician assistant to provide the required written determination documenting a student’s need for confinement at the student’s residence or other treatment setting in order for a school district to provide home instruction due to the student’s temporary or chronic health condition or need for treatment. Under State Board of Education regulations, this documentation may only be provided by the student’s physician. As amended, the bill’s provisions are in addition to any other State Board of Education requirements in regard to a student’s receipt of home instruction from the school district. Prior to advancing, the Committee amended the bill to specify that written determination from a physician assistant be accepted as documentation of a student’s need for home instruction; and reduce the minimum number of cumulative school days, for which a written determination for the need for home instruction is required, from 20 days to 15 days. NJPSA is Neutral on this bill.
A-3413, sponsored by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, Assemblywoman Linda S. Carter, and Assemblywoman Michele Matsikoudis, would establish the New Jersey Educator Evaluation Review Task Force to study and evaluate the educator evaluation system established pursuant to the TEACHNJ Act and implemented in New Jersey public schools. The task force will be charged with examining the educator evaluation process, gathering data, evaluating the data and making recommendations concerning the annual evaluation process for teachers, principals, assistant principals and vice principals established pursuant to the TEACHNJ Act. The task force is to consist of 13 members who have a background in, or special knowledge of, the legal, policy and administrative aspects of educator evaluation in New Jersey. NJPSA would have three representatives on the Task Force.
Additionally, the bill specifies that student growth data used for the purposes of educator evaluations is data collected in the most recent year in which an educator completed student growth objectives. Under the bill, teachers are not to collect new student growth observation data in the 2024-2025 school year, and are instead to use, for the purposes of educator evaluations, existing student growth objective data from the most recent year in which the educator completed student growth objectives. For any teacher in their first year of employment in a district, any teacher without a record of pre-existing student growth objectives, or any nontenured teacher, the teacher is to set student growth objectives and collect data pertaining to these objectives during the 2024-2025 school year. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, school districts are to implement guidelines for the collection of student growth objective data consistent with any law, rule, or regulation enacted as a result of the findings of the task force. NJPSA Supports this bill as it is currently drafted. It is important to note that this version of the bill is a significant departure from the original version of this bill that was introduced during lame duck. NJPSA, along with several other key education stakeholder groups, expressed strong opposition to the original version of the bill. As currently drafted, A-3413 will allow for more deliberation among all interested stakeholders before determining if there is a need to make any statutory or regulatory changes to the current educator evaluation system.
The Senate companion to this bill, S-2082,has already been passed by the full Senate, and was amended in this committee to be identical to the Assembly version of the bill.
If you have any questions about these or any other pieces of legislation, please reach out to your NJPSA Government Relations team at any time. Thank you for your advocacy, and for all that you do!