Sponsored by:
Assemblyman RONALD S. DANCER
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Requires school districts to ensure school buildings are open each school day to provide special education and related services to students with disabilities in-person during 2020-2021 school year.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the delivery of special education and related services to students with disabilities in the 2020-2021 school year.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of any law, rule, regulation, or executive order concerning the delivery of education to elementary and secondary school students to the contrary, for the 2020-2021 school year, a school district shall ensure that the schools of the district are open each school day to provide special education and related services, including speech language services, counseling services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral services, and nutrition services, to a student with disabilities in-person. The special education and related services shall be delivered to a student in-person, unless the parent or guardian of the student requests that the special education and related services be provided through a full-time program of virtual or remote instruction or through a combination of virtual or remote instruction and in-person instruction, in the event that those options are offered by the school district. The provision of special education and related services shall be in accordance with a student’s individualized education program and in consultation with the student’s parent or guardian and the child study team. The special education and related services provided in-person shall be delivered in a manner that adheres to health and safety standards concerning the limiting of the transmission of COVID-19, set forth by the Department of Education and the Department of Health.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
Pursuant to Executive Order No. 104 of 2020, the Governor ordered the closure of all public, private, and parochial schools in the State for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, to limit the transmission of COVID-19. In preparation for the 2020-2021 school year, the Department of Education (DOE) released guidance concerning the reopening of schools, which, in part, required districts to provide students some degree of in-person instruction. The DOE then gave parents and guardians the option to have their students engage in full-time virtual or remote instruction, even in the event that a school district was offering in-person instruction. Subsequently, school districts were given the option to open with a program of virtual or remote instruction for all students if the district showed that it could not meet certain health and safety standards.
This bill requires school districts to ensure that the schools of the district are open to provide special education and related services, such as speech language services, counseling services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral services, and nutrition services, to students with disabilities in-person during the 2020-2021 school year. Under the bill, special education and related services would be delivered in-person, unless the parent or guardian of the student requests that the student be provided the special education and related services through a full-time program of virtual or remote instruction or through a combination of virtual or remote instruction and in-person instruction. The provision of special education and related services would be in accordance with a student’s individualized education program (IEP) and in consultation with the student’s parent or guardian and the child study team. The bill requires that the special education and related services be delivered in a manner that adheres to health and safety standards set forth by the DOE and the Department of Health.
Research has shown that in-person programs of instruction generally lead to better educational outcomes for students, when those programs are compared to virtual or remote programs of instruction. Distance learning presents even more unique challenges to students with disabilities, especially when those students require a high level of support and assistance. These challenges presented themselves in a clear way during the COVID-19 pandemic as students were suddenly shifted to an online form of learning. While school districts strived to provide special education services to the greatest extent possible in a manner consistent with a student’s IEP, there are fears that many students with disabilities may have fallen behind in meeting the goals set out in their IEPs. In requiring schools to be open for in-person delivery of special education, the intent of this bill is to better ensure that a free and appropriate public education is provided to students with disabilities and to prevent further learning loss among this student population.