By Jennie Lamon, Assistant Director of Government Relations
March 7, 2025
New Jersey State Board of Education
The New Jersey State Board of Education held its monthly meeting on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at 100 Riverview Plaza, Trenton. The meeting covered a range of important educational policies, resolutions, and discussions including a report on the limited certification pilot program, final adoption of changes to NJQSAC, and updates to Standards and Assessments.
State Board of Education President Kathy Goldenberg began the meeting on a high note with the recognition of Kevin’ Dehmer’s confirmation as Commissioner of Education. As of February 25, 2025, Kevin was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, a confirmation met with widespread enthusiasm and support.
Recognitions
The Board presented two key resolutions at their March meeting:
Recognition of Gifted and Talented Students Month in New Jersey Highlighting the need to address inequities that leave many gifted students without the challenges they require.
Recognition of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Week in New Jersey Emphasizing the importance of SEL in student development. Accepting the Resolution, Betsy Ginsburg, Garden State Coalition of Schools, stated, “At this moment, I can’t think of anything more important than SEL.”
The Department of Education, Office of Recruitment, Preparation and Certification, presented a summary of findings of the pilot program for individuals to obtain a limited certificate of eligibility (CE) and limited certificate of eligibility with advanced standing (CEAS). This five year pilot program was established by P.L. 2021, c. 224, signed by Governor Murphy in September 2021, as part of a legislative initiative to help alleviate the teacher staffing shortage.
These limited certificates may only be utilized in certain school districts approved by the Commissioner to hire teachers holding a limited certificate. The law also requires the school districts participating in the pilot program to submit data to the Department and the Commissioner to annually report the data to the State Board of Education.
The Limited Certificate of Eligibility (CE) pilot program, which began on July 1, 2022, will conclude after the 2026-2027 school year. A summary of findings from the pilot program thus far indicate 80 total districts participated in the 2022-2023 school year, and the majority of participating educators have received effective summative ratings. A comprehensive report of all certificates issued will be provided to the State Board.
The Board discussed the resolution regarding the annual calendar of religious holidays for the 2025-2026 school year, as required under state law (N.J.A.C. 6A:32-8.4(e), pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:36-14 to 16).
The resolution proposes no additional holidays different from the current school year. The Resolution calls for parents to submit a written “request” for excused absences. The Board felt that the word “requests” suggests that districts have an option to excuse the absence or not. The Department agreed, and is going to change the wording to reflect that parents will submit a written notification. The Re;igios Holidays Calendar Resolution will be open for public comment in April, with a vote scheduled for May.
Evaluation of the Performance of School Districts
The Board adopted the readoption with amendments to the monitoring and evaluation of school districts, as outlined in Chapter 30. Under new criteria, more value will be placed on student growth. The Department of Education, Division of Field Support and Services, presented readoption in its final form with only three non-substantive changes, based on public comment. Additionally, the Department is recommending three agency initiated changes that are also non-substantive. NJQSAC District Performance Review (Appendix A) can be found here.
Standards and Assessment Updates
The Board held a second discussion on the Department’s presentation on the readoption of Chapter 8, focusing on: Enhancing alignment of instruction with student needs; Increasing access to advanced coursework; Preparing students for the modern workforce; and A commitment to continuous improvement. The chapter, which implements the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) and the Statewide assessment system, is scheduled to expire on May 3, 2025. The comment period, which opened on February 5, 2025, remains open for public input. As part of this readoption, the Department proposes amendments to streamline and clarify rules, procedures, and operations, and update terminology and rules to align to provisions throughout Title 6A of the New Jersey Administrative Code and Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes. The Department also proposes throughout the chapter to delete rules that were effective during a limited timeframe or reference defunct programs.
Student Transportation Amendments
In the first discussion on proposed amendments to Chapter 27, the Department of Education presented proposed changes to align the chapter with recent changes to State law. The amendments proposed include:
- clarification of the calculation of adjustments made to the payment amounts for nonpublic school student aid-in-lieu of transportation pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:39-1
- to effectuate P.L. 2024, c. 81,which allows district boards of education to designate school personnel who are not licensed as school bus drivers to transport students between home and school in a private or district-owned vehicle with a capacity of eight or fewer passengers, excluding the driver
- and proposes to add new Subchapter 14 to codify a process for the implementation of the nonpublic consortium transportation program pursuant to P.L. 2023, c.326. Enacted in January 2024, P.L. 2023, c. 326 authorizes the establishment of a nonpublic consortium for the purpose of assuming the responsibility of transporting students who reside in participating school districts but attend member nonpublic schools. The public law’s implementation is limited to three years, so it was not codified in statute.
The State Board will meet again on April 7th. To submit comments regarding N.J.A.C. 6A:8, Standards and Assessment, use this form, or email your comments to chapter8@doe.nj.gov.
If you have any questions or would like more information on any topics covered by the State Board, please contact jlamon@njpsa.org.