Bill Text: NJ S820 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Establishes Division of Equity and Inclusion in DOE to identify racial and socioeconomic segregation of school districts and to ensure better integration in public schools; appropriates $5 million.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-06-16 - Senate Amendment (Voice) (Ruiz) [S820 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-S820-Amended.html
[Second Reprint]
SENATE, No. 820
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
220th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED JANUARY 18, 2022
Sponsored by:
Senator JOSEPH P. CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Senator VIN GOPAL
District 11 (Monmouth)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Ruiz
SYNOPSIS
Establishes Division of Equity and Inclusion in DOE to identify racial and socioeconomic segregation of school districts and to ensure better integration in public schools; appropriates $5 million.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As amended by the Senate on June 16, 2022.
An Act 2[concerning the desegregation of public schools] establishing the Division of Equity and Inclusion in the Department of Education2 1[and],1 supplementing Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes 1, and making an appropriation1 .
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. There is established in the Department of Education the Division of 2[School Desegregation] Equity and Inclusion2. The purpose of the division is to identify instances of de facto racial and socioeconomic segregation of school districts and to ensure better integration and a more diverse enrollment in public schools.
b. The Commissioner of Education shall appoint the Director of the Division of 2[School Desegregation] Equity and Inclusion2, who shall be qualified by training and experience to perform the duties of the division, from among current department employees. The director shall be a person of recognized judgment, integrity, and objectivity, and shall be skilled in communication, conflict resolution, and professionalism.
c. The director shall organize and direct the work of the division, including the work of such professional and clerical staff as may be necessary to carry out the director's duties.
2. The duties of the Director of the Division of 2[School Desegregation] Equity and Inclusion2 shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
a. compiling statistics on the racial, ethnic, and economic composition of students for each public school in the State;
b. 2producing2 a comparative analysis of the educational outcomes of students enrolled in highly-segregated schools with the educational outcomes of students enrolled in more racially- and economically-integrated schools;
c. reviewing housing patterns and State laws and regulations which require students to attend schools in their resident districts;
d. reviewing and making recommendations to strengthen the "Interdistrict Public School Choice Program Act," P.L.2010, c.65 (C.18A:36B-14 et seq.) to:
(1) promote and increase participation in the program; and
(2) ensure that student population diversity in all districts participating in a choice district program is maintained;
e. examining other states
which have implemented programs that have successfully increased the ethnic,
racial, and economic diversity of a school district's student population; and
f. 2[the development of] producing2 a strategic plan for increasing and subsequently maintaining diversity in all school districts, which plan may not be used to supersede a court-ordered or administrative court-ordered desegregation plan. Within 180 days of the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), and every five years thereafter, the director shall adopt a new strategic plan.
3. Upon adoption, the director shall submit the strategic plan required pursuant to section 2 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to the Governor, and to the Legislature pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1).
1Within 18 months of its adoption, the director shall submit to the Governor and the Legislature a status report regarding the implementation of the strategic plan.1
14. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Education the sum of $5,000,000 to effectuate the purposes of this act.1
1[4.] 5.1 This act shall take effect immediately.
