Bill Text: NJ A1803 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Extends textbook sharing program to include all school equipment.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-01-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [A1803 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A1803-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman CAROLINE CASAGRANDE
District 12 (Mercer and Monmouth)
SYNOPSIS
Extends textbook sharing program to include all school equipment.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning the sharing of school equipment by public school districts and amending and supplementing P.L.2002, c.98.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.2002, c.98 (C.18A:34-3) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, the Department of Education shall coordinate the sharing of textbooks and other school equipment among school districts by creating a Statewide textbook and school equipment bank. The Department of Education shall create and maintain a database of all textbooks and school equipment that will be discarded by each school district. The textbook and school equipment bank database shall be made available on the Department of Education's website and a list of all available textbooks and other school equipment shall be sent to each school district periodically.
b. Each school district shall notify the Department of Education of any textbooks or school equipment the district intends to discard. The Department of Education shall within 14 days of receiving notification from the school district of the intent to dispose of [the] any textbooks or school equipment, list the textbooks and school equipment in the textbook and school equipment bank database. School districts shall retain the textbooks to be discarded for a period of 120 days after the district has notified the Department of Education and retain school equipment for such period as established pursuant to section 2 of P.L. , c. (C. ). (now pending before the Legislature as this bill)
c. Districts acquiring textbooks and other school equipment using the textbook and school equipment bank database are responsible for all costs associated with receiving them from the donating district.
d. The department shall make the textbook and school equipment bank database available for use by nonpublic schools.
(cf: P.L.2002, c.98, s.1)
2. (New section) a. The Department of Education shall determine the types of school equipment to be retained by school districts and establish guidelines on the useful life and appropriate time frames in which the school districts are required to retain the equipment. School equipment exceeding the useful life guidelines established by the department shall be exempt from the provisions of section 1 of this P.L.2002, c.98 (C.18A:34-3).
b. The provisions of section 1 of P.L.2002, c.98 (C.18A:34-3) shall not apply to any school equipment that is worn out or deemed useless due to damage or mutilation.
3. This act shall take effect on the 180th day after enactment, but the Commissioner of Education may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of the act.
STATEMENT
Under current law, school districts are required to notify the Department of Education of any textbooks the district intends to discard so that the department can catalog the textbooks in a Statewide textbook database and coordinate the sharing of textbooks among school districts. Moreover, school districts are required to retain the textbooks to be discarded for a period of 120 days after the district has notified the Department of Education. This bill intends to expand the Statewide textbook sharing program to include all other school equipment. The Department of Education shall define all other types of school equipment it deems appropriate to share among the school districts, include such items in the textbook and equipment database, and establish time frames in which the school districts are required to retain the equipment.
