Bill Text: NJ A3311 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Directs Commissioner of Education to establish guidelines limiting amount of time students spend on school bus.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-09-27 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [A3311 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-A3311-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN J. BURZICHELLI
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
SYNOPSIS
Directs Commissioner of Education to establish guidelines limiting amount of time students spend on school bus.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the regulation of pupil transportation services and supplementing chapter 39 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. Within 180 days of the effective date of this act, the Commissioner of Education shall issue guidelines establishing limits on the total amount of time a pupil may be transported by a public school district or a cooperative transportation services agency between the pupil's residence and school. The guidelines may include exceptions for public school students with unique travel needs and may contain varying travel time limitations for students of different ages and districts with differing geographic characteristics.
b. A school district and a cooperative transportation services agency shall comply with the guidelines issued by the commissioner pursuant to subsection a. of this section beginning in the first full school year following the issuance of the guidelines. The commissioner may waive compliance with the guidelines in the first full school year if he determines that there is insufficient time between the issuance of the guidelines and the beginning of the school year for districts to comply. The commissioner may waive the guidelines in any school year if a district or cooperative transportation services agency demonstrates to the commissioner that compliance with the guidelines:
(1) increases the total cost to the district or cooperative transportation services agency providing transportation services; or
(2) decreases the number of nonpublic school students who receive transportation services due to the fact that one or more of the guideline requirements would increase the per pupil cost of the transportation above the maximum amount of nonpublic school transportation costs per pupil established pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1981, c.57 (C.18A:39-1a).
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill directs the Commissioner of Education to establish guidelines limiting the amount of time school children can be transported between their residence and school. The guidelines may include exceptions for students with unique transportation needs, such as students enrolled in private schools for the disabled or students attending a county vocational school outside of the students' home county. Additionally, the bill allows the commissioner to establish different time limits to account for different student age groups and district geographic characteristics. Districts and cooperative transportation services agencies are required to comply with the guidelines unless the commissioner waives the requirement after a district or cooperative transportation services agency documents that compliance would either increase the cost of providing transportation services or would decrease the number of nonpublic school students who are transported by increasing the transportation cost per pupil beyond the threshold established by statute for transporting nonpublic school students.
The purpose of this bill is to address the concern that some students are required to travel an inordinate amount of time on school buses.
