ASSEMBLY, No. 149

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblywoman CRUZ-PEREZ and Assemblyman ROBERTS

An Act requiring the classification "multi-racial" be included on certain forms and supplementing chapter 36 of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

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

    1. As used in this act:

    "State agency" means any State department, board, bureau, commission, authority, council, office, and any other State agency or instrumentality; any political subdivision of the State or unit of local government; or any public or private educational institution that receives State aid.

    2. Notwithstanding any law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, all forms, applications, questionnaires, and other written or electronic documents or materials produced by or for, or used by or filed with, any State agency which request information from a respondent regarding one's racial or ethnic identification shall include the classification "multi-racial."

    3. No such written or electronic document described in section 2 of this act shall bear the designation "other" as a racial or ethnic classification unless such document was a written document which was printed and in stock prior to the effective date of this act.

    4. In any instance in which information on racial or ethnic classifications of individuals collected by a State agency is reported to any agency of the federal government, the computation of all persons designated on forms or other documents as "multi-racial" shall be reported by the State agency as "multi-racial." However, if any federal agency deems the "multi-racial" category as unacceptable, or if the reporting of data as "multi-racial" will have an adverse effect on federal programs or federal funding in the State, then the reporting State agency shall, upon re-submission of the data, re-designate the "multi-racial" population by allocating a percentage of the number of persons comprising such population to each federally acceptable racial or ethnic classification at the same rate as each classification comprises the general population in the State of the collected group.

    5. This act shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month after enactment.

STATEMENT

    This bill would require all State agencies, as defined in this bill, to include the classification "multi-racial" on all forms, applications, questionnaires, and other written or electronic documents or materials produced by or for, or used by or filed with, any State agency which requests information from a respondent regarding one's racial or ethnic identification. Further, it would eliminate the classification "other" as a racial or ethnic classification unless a document containing the classification "other" was a written document which was printed and in stock prior to the effective date of this act.

    This bill also provides that data gathered by a State agency in the classification "multi-racial" be reported to the federal government as "multi-racial" except when the federal agency deems the "multi-racial" classification as unacceptable, or if the reporting of data as "multi-racial" will have an adverse effect on federal programs or funding in the State. In this case, the reporting State agency will, upon re-submission of the data, re-designate the "multi-racial" population by allocating a percentage of the number of persons comprising such population to each federally acceptable racial or ethnic category at the same rate as each classification comprises the general population in the State of the collected group.

Requires the classification "multi-racial" be included on certain State forms.