ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 4414

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

216th LEGISLATURE

ADOPTED JUNE 18, 2015

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  ANGEL FUENTES

District 5 (Camden and Gloucester)

Assemblyman  PATRICK J. DIEGNAN, JR.

District 18 (Middlesex)

Assemblyman  CARMELO G. GARCIA

District 33 (Hudson)

SYNOPSIS

     Requires exemption of certain students from administration of State assessments, and requires DOE notify districts of availability of certain assessment accommodations.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     Substitute as adopted by the Assembly Education Committee.

An Act concerning the administration of State assessments and supplementing chapter 7C of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

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

     1.    As used in this act:

     “PARCC assessment” means the assessments developed by the consortium of states known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

     “Recently-arrived limited English proficient student” means a student with limited English proficiency who has attended schools in the United States for less than 12 months.

     “Unique accommodation” means an accommodation that may be provided to a student with a disability or a student with limited English proficiency that is not enumerated as an available accommodation by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, but would result in a valid score for the student.

     2.    a.  As authorized pursuant to 34 C.F.R s.200.6, a school district or charter school shall exempt a recently-arrived limited English proficient student from one administration of the English Language Arts/Literacy section of the PARCC assessment, except that the school district or charter school shall administer the assessment to the student upon the request of the student’s parent or guardian.

     b.    Notwithstanding any provision of P.L.1979, c.241 (C.18A:7C-1 et seq.) to the contrary, a recently-arrived limited English proficient student shall not be denied a State endorsed diploma for not completing a PARCC assessment from which the student was exempted pursuant to subsection a. of this section.

     3.    a.  No later than six months prior to the beginning of the administration of the PARCC assessment in that school year, the Department of Education shall notify each school district and charter school that operates grades three through 11, or a subset thereof, of all available assessment accommodations for a student with a disability and a student with limited English proficiency, including the opportunity to submit a request to the department for a unique accommodation for a student.

     b.    The Commissioner of Education shall annually provide a report to the State Board of Education on the use of unique accommodations on the PARCC assessments.  The report shall include, but need not be limited to, the number of unique accommodation requests submitted to the department, the number of unique accommodation requests granted by the department, and a general classification of the unique accommodations that were submitted and granted.

     4.    This act shall take effect immediately and shall first apply to the first full school year beginning after the effective date.