Bill Text: NJ A1990 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Required Commissioner of Education to develop emergency notification system to alert students and staff of active shooter on school grounds.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [A1990 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A1990-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman SHANIQUE SPEIGHT
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
Assemblywoman SHAVONDA E. SUMTER
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires Commissioner of Education to develop emergency notification system to alert students and staff of active shooter on school grounds.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning student safety and supplementing chapter 41 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. The Commissioner of Education shall develop an emergency notification system for use by any public or nonpublic school that enables the school to alert the students, the parents and guardians of the students, teachers, and all staff of an active shooter situation in the school or on school grounds. The notification system shall:
(1) provide that the parents or guardians of students, students, with the permission of a parent or guardian, teachers, and all other school staff, may register any mobile electronic communications device with the school to receive the notification;
(2) be accessible and compatible with all makes and models of mobile electronic communications devices;
(3) be directly linked to local law enforcement authorities or, in the case of a school located in a municipality in which there is no municipal police department, a location designated by the Superintendent of State Police, and shall immediately transmit a signal or message to such authorities upon activation; and
(4) be made available to each public and nonpublic school at no cost to the school.
b. In the event that a board of education or the chief school administrator of a nonpublic school determines to use the notification system developed by the commissioner pursuant to subsection a. of this section, the principal of each school in the school district or chief school administrator of a nonpublic school shall ensure that the notification system is customized to each particular school and includes the contact information for each person who registered with the school to receive the notification pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection a. of this section.
c. As used in this act, "mobile electronic communications device" means any mobile device capable of communication or other transmission of information and includes, but is not limited to, a cellular telephone, wireless tablet, watch, or other device with Internet capability, or other wireless communication device.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Commissioner of Education to develop an emergency notification system that enables schools to alert the students, the parents and guardians of the students, teachers, and all staff of an active shooter situation in the school or on school grounds. Under the bill, the notification system will:
· provide that the parents or guardians of students, students, with the permission of a parent or guardian, teachers, and all other school staff, may register any mobile electronic communications device with the school to receive the notification;
· be accessible and compatible with all makes and models of mobile electronic communications devices;
· be directly linked to local law enforcement authorities or, in the case of a school located in a municipality in which there is no municipal police department, a location designated by the Superintendent of State Police, and will immediately transmit a signal or message to such authorities upon activation; and
· be made available to each public and nonpublic school at no cost to the school.
Under the bill, if a board of education or the chief school administrator of a nonpublic school determines to use the notification system, the principal of each school in the school district or chief school administrator of a nonpublic school is required to ensure that the notification system is customized to each particular school and includes the contact information for each person who registered with the school to receive the notification.
