Bill Text: NJ A4901 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires school district or charter school to provide notification to parent or guardian of enrolled student on upcoming administration of State assessments or commercially-developed standardized assessments.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-01-11 - Substituted by S2923 (1R) [A4901 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-A4901-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman MILA M. JASEY
District 27 (Essex and Morris)
SYNOPSIS
Requires school district or charter school to provide notification to parent or guardian of enrolled student on upcoming administration of State assessments or commercially-developed standardized assessments.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning student testing in public schools and supplementing chapter 7C of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
"Commercially-developed standardized assessment" means a State-required or district-mandated assessment that is administered by the school district or charter school that requires all students in a grade to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from a common bank of questions, in the same manner, and is developed and scored by an entity under contract with a board of education.
"State assessment" means an assessment required pursuant to State or federal law and administered to all students in a specific grade level or subject area and whose results are aggregated for analysis at the district, school, or student subgroup level.
2. a. No later than October 1 of each school year, a school district or charter school shall provide to the parents or guardians of a student enrolled in the district or charter school information on any State assessment or commercially-developed standardized assessment that will be administered to the student in that school year. If a school district or charter school elects to administer an additional commercially-developed standardized assessment after October 1, then the information shall be provided within 30 days of that determination. The information, as determined by the commissioner through regulations adopted pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall include, but need not be limited to, the following:
(1) the subject area of the assessment and grade levels covered by the assessment;
(2) the date or range of potential dates for the administration of the assessment;
(3) the time allotted for the student to take and complete the assessment;
(4) any accommodations or accessibility options available to students;
(5) information on how and when the student and his parent or guardian can access both sample question and answers to the assessment and the student's results; and
(6) whether the assessment is required by the State, the federal government, or both.
b. The commissioner shall provide to each school district and charter school a model document to provide to parents or guardians the information required pursuant to subsection a. of this section and information on the costs incurred by the State associated with the administration of the State assessment.
c. The information required pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall be provided, to the maximum extent feasible, in the native languages of the parents or guardians of the students enrolled in the school district or charter school.
d. The information provided pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall also be available at the meeting of the board of education of the district or the meeting of the board of trustees of the charter school at which the annual School Performance Reports are presented to the public.
3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall first be applicable to the first full school year following enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that no later than October 1 of each school year, a school district and a charter school must provide to the parents or guardians of a student enrolled in the district or school information on any State assessment or commercially-developed standardized assessment that will be administered to the student in that school year. The Commissioner of Education is to provide a model document to each school district and charter school to provide the required information to parents or guardians and information on the costs incurred by the State associated with the administration of the State assessment. The bill also requires the commissioner to determine by regulation the information which will be provided to parents or guardians of students enrolled in the district or charter school. The specific information items listed in the bill will be required to be included in the commissioner's regulations.
The information provided annually to parents or guardians must also be available at the meeting of the board of education of the school district or the meeting of the board of trustees of the charter school at which the annual School Performance Reports are presented to the public.
