Bill Text: NJ S2167 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Permits certain constituent districts of limited purpose regional districts to pay tuition for their students to attend public or nonpublic schools other than school of limited purpose regional.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-16 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee [S2167 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-S2167-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator STEVEN V. OROHO
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Permits certain constituent districts of limited purpose regional districts to pay tuition for their students to attend public or nonpublic schools other than school of limited purpose regional.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning regional school districts and supplementing chapter 13 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Notwithstanding any provision of law or regulation to the contrary, a constituent school district of a limited purpose regional district in which the share of its equalized valuation allotted to the regional district is 25 percentage points or more than the average share of the equalized valuation which is allotted to the regional district by all the constituent districts, may establish a tuition program through which tuition is provided, upon the request of a student's parent or guardian, to a student who intends to enroll in a school other than a school of the limited purpose regional district.
b. Tuition provided under the program shall equal the lesser of: the actual cost per pupil of the school enrolling the student; or 75% of the actual comparative cost per pupil for the prior school year at the limited purpose regional school district, as reported in the Department of Education's Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending. Tuition may be used to attend a nonpublic school or public school in the State.
(1) If the tuition is used in order to attend a public school in another school district, the district shall enroll the student and no further tuition shall be required for attendance.
(2) If the tuition is used in order to attend a nonpublic school, the parent or guardian shall be responsible for any difference in tuition.
c. Transportation shall be provided to a student receiving tuition pursuant to this section who is attending a nonpublic school or a public school in accordance with the provisions of N.J.S.18A:39-1 applicable to nonpublic school transportation. Transportation shall be a responsibility of the constituent district.
d. A student who participates in a tuition program pursuant to this section shall be included in the resident enrollment of the constituent school district. If necessary, the department shall adjust the equalized valuation allocation to account for any students initially included in the limited purpose regional school district's resident enrollment who will participate in the tuition program.
e. Any student who receives tuition pursuant to this section shall be eligible to continue to receive tuition until graduation from the public or nonpublic school of attendance.
2. This act shall take effect in the first full school year following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
A limited purpose regional district, in contrast to an all purpose regional district, does not provide for all the school needs of its constituent municipalities. It may be organized to provide, for example, one or more of the following: elementary schools, middle schools, or high schools. In the case of a limited purpose regional district, only a portion of the equalized valuation of each constituent municipality is allocated to the regional district for purposes of determining the percent share of the regional district's budget which must be borne by a particular constituent municipality. The purpose of this bill is to offer a form of relief to a constituent municipality of a limited purpose regional district that is bearing an unfair proportion of the costs of the regional district.
Under the provisions of the bill, a constituent municipality of a limited purpose regional district in which the share of its equalized valuation allotted to the regional district is 25 percentage points or more than the average share of the equalized valuation which is allotted to the regional district by all the constituent municipalities, will be able to establish a tuition program through which tuition will be provided, upon request, to a student who wishes to attend a school other than a school of the limited purpose regional district.
The bill limits the tuition provided under the program to the lesser of: the actual cost per pupil of the school enrolling the student; or 75% of the actual comparative cost per pupil for the prior school year at the limited purpose regional school district, as reported in the Department of Education's Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending. The bill permits the tuition to be used to attend a nonpublic school or a public school. If the tuition is used to attend a public school in another school district, the district is not permitted to require any more tuition for attendance. If the tuition is used to attend a nonpublic school, the parent or guardian is responsible for any difference in tuition.
Transportation will be provided by the constituent district to a tuition student attending a nonpublic school or a public school according to the same rules that are applicable to nonpublic school transportation.
