Bill Text: NJ A4442 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Lowers age requirement of compulsory school attendance from six to five years old.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-20 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [A4442 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4442-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Assemblyman BENJIE E. WIMBERLY
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Lowers age requirement of compulsory school attendance from six to five years old.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning compulsory education and amending various sections of the statutory law.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.18A:38-25 is amended to read as follows:
18A:38-25. Every parent, guardian or other person having custody and control of a child between the ages of [six] five and 16 years, shall cause such child regularly to attend the public schools of the district or a day school in which there is given instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools for children of similar grades and attainments or to receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school.
(cf: N.J.S.18A:38-25)
2. N.J.S.18A:38-27 is amended to read as follows:
18A:38-27. Any child [between the ages of six and 16 years] required to attend school pursuant to N.J.S.18A:38-25 who shall repeatedly be absent from school, and any child of such age found away from school during school hours whose parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of the child is unable to cause him to attend school and any pupil who is incorrigible, actually vagrant, vicious, or immoral in conduct, shall be deemed to be a juvenile delinquent and shall be proceeded against as such.
(cf: N.J.S.18A:38-27)
3. N.J.S.18A:38-28 is amended to read as follows:
18A:38-28. Any attendance officer who shall find any child [between six and 16 years of age] required to attend school pursuant to N.J.S.18A:38-25, who is a truant from school, shall take the child and deliver him to the parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of the child, or to the teacher of the school which such child is lawfully required to attend.
(cf: N.J.S.18A:38-28)
4. N.J.S.18A:38-31 is amended to read as follows:
18A:38-31. A parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of a child [between the ages of six and 16 years] required to attend school pursuant to N.J.S.18A:38-25, who shall fail to comply with any of the provisions of this article relating to his duties, shall be deemed to be a disorderly person and shall be subject to a fine of not more than $25.00 for a first offense and not more than $100.00 for each subsequent offense, in the discretion of the court. In any such proceeding, the summons issuing therein, or in special circumstances a warrant, shall be directed to the alleged disorderly person and the child.
(cf: P.L.1980, c.153, s.1)
5. This act shall take effect immediately and shall first apply to the second full school year beginning after the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill lowers the age requirement for compulsory school attendance from six to five years of age. The bill also includes technical corrections to sections of law regarding student truancy to reflect the lower age for compulsory school attendance established by the bill.
