Bill Text: NJ S1115 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires school districts to provide transportation to and from school to pupils who reside along certain routes.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-04 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee [S1115 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-S1115-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JEFF VAN DREW
District 1 (Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland)
SYNOPSIS
Requires school districts to provide transportation to and from school to pupils who reside along certain routes.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning student transportation 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. Whenever a school district provides any transportation for public school pupils to and from school pursuant to N.J.S.18A:39-1, a school district shall provide transportation to and from school for elementary school pupils who live two miles or less from their public or nonpublic school of attendance and secondary school pupils who live 2½ miles or less from their public or nonpublic school of attendance if two or more of the following criteria are met:
a. a person required to register as a sex offender pursuant to P.L.1994, c.133 (C.2C:7-1 et al.) resides along the pupil's route to school;
b. the speed limit on any road along the pupil's route to school is 40 miles per hour or more;
c. there are no sidewalks or shoulders along a road on the pupil's route to school; and
d. a road on the pupil's route to school is the site of a significant number of traffic accidents, as determined by the Department of Education in consultation with the Department of Transportation.
2. The State shall bear 100% of any additional costs incurred by a school district due to the enactment of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
3. The Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Transportation, shall establish criteria for the designation of a road along a pupil's route to school that has a significant number of traffic accidents.
4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall first apply to the 2010-2011 school year.
STATEMENT
Under current law, school districts are required to provide transportation to and from school to elementary school pupils who live more than two miles from their public school or secondary school pupils who live more than 2 1/2 miles from their public school. If the school district provides such transportation to public school students, then it is also required to provide transportation to students attending nonpublic schools. School districts are not required to provide transportation to and from school to pupils who do not meet the established distance requirements. This bill would require school districts that already provide pupil transportation to pupils who meet the established distance requirements to also provide transportation to and from school for public and nonpublic pupils who do not meet the established distance requirements if at least two of the following four criteria are met:
(1) a person required to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law resides along the pupil's route to school;
(2) the speed limit on any road along the pupil's route to school is 40 miles per hour or more;
(3) there are no sidewalks or shoulders along a road on the pupil's route to school; and
(4) a road on the pupil's route to school is the site of a significant number of traffic accidents, as determined by the Department of Education in consultation with the Department of Transportation.
Under the bill, the State must bear 100% of any additional costs incurred by a school district due to the bill's provisions. The bill also directs the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Transportation, to establish criteria for the designation of a road along a pupil's route to school that has a significant number of traffic accidents.
