SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 1796

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MARCH 18, 2019

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1796 (1R), 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 bill also includes a grandfather provision for these students residing outside the county and more than 40 miles from the academy, if they are enrolled in and attending the regular full-time program at the academy on the bill’s effective date.  Under the grandfather provision, these students will continue to receive transportation from the resident school district until graduation from the academy.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to include a grandfather provision.  For those students who live outside of Monmouth County and more than 40 miles from the academy and who are enrolled in and attending the regular full-time program at the academy on the effective date of the bill, their resident school district will continue to provide transportation until they graduate from the academy.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The OLS concludes that the bill may lead to an indeterminate decrease in transportation costs for some school districts.  Under the bill, school districts that are located outside of Monmouth County and are transporting a student to the Marine Academy of Science and Technology who resides more than 40 miles from the academy will not be required to provide the transportation but rather will provide an aid in-lieu-of payment to the student’s parent or guardian.  The aid in-lieu-of payment will equal the aid in-lieu-of amount for which a nonpublic school student is eligible.  In FY 2019, the nonpublic aid in-lieu-of amount is $1000.  To the extent that the cost of the transportation services currently being provided by a school district to such an academy student exceeds $1000, the school district will realize a savings.

      OLS notes that in the case of students who are enrolled in and attending the regular full-time program at the academy on the bill’s effective date, the school district will be required to provide transportation services to that student until graduation.