SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 1088
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 12, 1997
The Senate Education Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1088 with committee amendments.
As amended, this bill limits the responsibility of a school district to pay for or provide transportation services to a homeless child. When the law was originally enacted requiring a district which is determined to be the district of residence for a homeless child to provide or pay for transportation services, it was assumed that a child's designation as homeless would be a temporary one. What has occurred in some instances, however, is that although a child may continue to live in another community for an extended period of time, that child continues to be designated as homeless, and the designated district of residence must continue its responsibility for transportation for an inordinate period of time.
This bill provides that a school district which is determined to be the district of residence for a homeless child who is attending school in another district would only be required to pay for any tuition and transportation costs incurred by that district until the end of the school year. Similarly, if a child who is designated homeless is residing in another district but attending school in the district of residence, the district of residence would only be required to provide transportation services until the end of the school year. In subsequent years, the district in which the child is domiciled as of the Application for State School Aid (ASSA) filing date would become the district of residence and would pay the costs of tuition and transportation. These provisions would not apply to a child who is in a public or nonpublic transitional or temporary residential facility.
The committee amended the bill to delete the requirement that the districts must be adjacent, to specify the responsibility for the homeless child in subsequent years, and to provide an exemption for certain children.