SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 1796

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  OCTOBER 18, 2018

     The Senate Education Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1796, with committee amendments.

     As amended, this bill revises the requirements for providing pupil transportation to students attending the Marine Academy of Science and Technology which is a county vocational school located in Monmouth County.  Currently, the school district in which a student resides is required to provide transportation if a student resides more than two and one-half miles from his county vocational school of attendance, regardless of the distance to the county vocational school or the cost of the transportation.  This bill would continue to require resident school districts to provide transportation to all of their pupils attending the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, except in the case of students who reside outside of Monmouth County and more than 40 miles from the academy.  In this case the student’s parent or guardian would be eligible to receive the aid-in-lieu-of transportation amount, which in the 2018-2019 school year is $1,000. 

      The committee amended the bill to apply only to students attending the Marine Academy of Science and Technology located in Monmouth County.  The amendments provide that for students living more than 40 miles from the academy and outside of Monmouth County, the resident school district would only be responsible to provide an aid-in-lieu-of transportation amount, not the actual transportation.  The bill as introduced would have permitted resident school districts to provide aid-in-lieu-of transportation to all students attending a county vocational school outside of their county of residence, if the cost of the transportation exceeded the aid-in-lieu-of amount.