SENATE, No. 2773

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED AUGUST 3, 2020

 


 

Sponsored by:

Senator  M. TERESA RUIZ

District 29 (Essex)

Senator  SHIRLEY K. TURNER

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires DOE to select three vendors for diagnostic tools to measure certain benchmarks in students; requires school districts to use selected tools; and requires DOE to provide federal funds to districts for procuring these tools.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning the Department of Education and vendors for certain student diagnostic tools.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    a.  Within 30 days of the effective date of this act, the Department of Education shall issue a request for qualifications from vendors interested in contracting with school districts to provide an academic and wellness tool for use in assisting school districts in measuring both academic benchmarks and social and emotional benchmarks in students.  The request for qualifications shall clearly set forth the department’s baseline requirements for the diagnostic tool and shall seek such submissions and information from vendors as deemed necessary by the department. 

     After reviewing the qualifications submitted by vendors pursuant to this section, and no more than 30 days following the issuance of the request for qualifications from vendors, the department shall select the three vendors providing the diagnostic tools that best meet the department’s baseline requirements included in the request for qualifications.  When releasing the list of the three vendors, the department shall include a statement setting forth the criteria applied by the department in selecting the vendors.  The department shall make the list of vendors available to school districts in a prominent location on the department’s Internet website.

     b.    A school district shall use one of the academic and wellness diagnostic tool selected by the department.  The purpose of the diagnostic tool is to assist school leaders, teachers, and parents in assessing and addressing the needs of students.  The diagnostic tool shall not be used for teacher evaluation purposes.

     Upon application, a school district may be granted a waiver of the requirement to use one of the diagnostic tools that have been selected by the department, if the school district demonstrates to the department’s satisfaction that it is using a comparable diagnostic tool. 

     c.     A school district shall provide data resulting from the use of the diagnostic tool to the department.  The data shall be provided in a manner and form determined by the department and shall not include any personally identifiable information.  The department shall compile the data provided by school districts into a comparative report.  Compiled data from the report that is made available to the public shall not be presented in a manner that allows for the identification of individual school districts.    

     d.    The department shall use moneys received under the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act), Pub.L. 116-136, through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSERF), to assist school districts and minimize their costs in procuring academic and wellness tools to measure academic benchmarks and social and emotional benchmarks in students.

 

     2.    This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill requires that within 30 days of its effective date, the Department of Education must issue a request for qualifications (RFQ) from vendors interested in contracting with school districts to provide an academic and wellness tool to assist the districts in measuring both academic benchmarks and social and emotional benchmarks in students.  The RFQ is required to state clearly the department’s baseline requirements for the diagnostic tool.  Under the RFQ, vendors will be asked to provide such submissions and information as deemed necessary by the department.  After reviewing the qualifications submitted by the vendors, and no more than 30 days after the issuance of the RFQ, the department will select those three vendors that provide the diagnostic tools that best meet the department’s baseline requirements.  The department will post the list of vendors on its Internet website.

     The bill requires a school district to use one of the diagnostic tools selected by the department for the purpose of assisting school leaders, teachers, and parents in assessing and addressing the needs of students.  The bill stipulates that the  diagnostic tool may not be used for teacher evaluation purposes.  The bill also permits a district to receive a waiver from the department to use a diagnostic tool other than one of the department’s selections, provided that the district can demonstrate that it is a comparable tool.

     The bill requires school district to submit data resulting from the use of the diagnostic tool to the department, in a manner and form determined by the department.  The department will compile the data into a comparative report. 

     The department is required to use moneys received under the federal “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act), Pub.L. 116-136, through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSERF) to assist districts in procuring the tools described in the bill and in minimizing the costs to the districts.