SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2832

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

      The Senate Education Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2832 with committee amendments.

State Board of Education regulations at N.J.A.C.6A:9B-7.3 require a candidate for a substitute teacher credential to have at least 60 semester-hour credits completed at a regionally accredited institution of higher education at the time of applying for the substitute credential.  As amended, this bill allows a student, who is at least 20 of years of age and is enrolled in a regionally accredited institution of higher education, to have a minimum of 30 semester-hour credits completed at the institution at the time of applying for the substitute credential.

     The committee amended the bill to require that a candidate applying for a substitute teacher credential under the bill be at least 20 years of age. The amendments also clarify that nothing in the bill restricts school districts from establishing additional criteria for the employment of such substitute teachers.