SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 1428

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MARCH 4, 2019

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 1428 (1R).

      Assembly Bill No. 1428 directs the Commissioner of Education to develop and administer a three-year Child Trafficking Awareness Pilot Program to provide school district staff and students in selected districts with training about the warning signs and risk factors associated with child trafficking and how to prevent it.  Under the provisions of the bill, the commissioner will select two districts in each of the southern, central, and northern regions of the State to participate in the program and will seek a cross section of school districts from urban, suburban, and rural areas of the State.

      The program will include information that promotes a greater understanding of: risk factors that make children more susceptible to becoming a victim of child trafficking; recruitment methods of traffickers; the behavioral indicators that a student may be a victim of child trafficking; how to report suspected cases of child trafficking to school administrators and law enforcement; and strategies to prevent children from becoming victims of child trafficking.

      Under the bill, the commissioner will provide pilot districts with a list of resources from established and reliable sources for implementing the training under the program, and sample school policies and protocols for identifying a suspected victim of child trafficking and responding to a disclosure from a student that he is a victim of child trafficking.  At the program’s conclusion, the commissioner will submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on the implementation of the pilot program and the commissioner's recommendation on the feasibility of implementing the program on a Statewide basis.

      As reported, this bill is identical to Senate Bill No. 2653, as also reported by the committee.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) notes that the legislation would lead to an indeterminate increase in State expenditures over the duration of the three-year pilot program plus the amount of time it would take the Department of Education to establish the program and prepare the required program evaluation report.  To the extent that the bill provides the department with significant discretion in developing the pilot program, the cost would be contingent on implementation decisions by the department, which the OLS cannot independently forecast.  However, the OLS anticipates that any cost increase would likely be insignificant.  First, the pilot program would be limited to six districts.  Second, a significant amount of material currently exists regarding identifying warning signs of child trafficking.  The OLS anticipates that the department would adapt such material to implement the bill, thereby minimizing the resources needed for that purpose.