ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[First Reprint]
SENATE, No. 2835
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JANUARY 6, 2022
The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2835 (1R).
This bill establishes certain reporting requirements in regard to the current and projected teacher workforce in the State. The bill requires school districts to annually submit to the Commissioner of Education, no later than October 15, information for the current school year on teaching positions, including the number of vacant teaching positions, the number of new teaching positions, the number of teaching positions that were eliminated, and the anticipated teacher retirements.
This bill also requires school districts to annually submit to the commissioner, no later than September 1, information on public school teacher retention that includes:
(1) the number of teachers who left employment with the district during the prior school year;
(2) the reason why those teachers left employment with the district, including dismissal, non-renewal of a contract, a reduction in force, employment in another school district or a nonpublic school, employment in another field, relocation to another state, or retirement;
(3) the characteristics of the teachers who left the district, including age, sex, race, and tenure status; and
(4) such other information the commissioner deems appropriate.
The commissioner will annually compile the data submitted by school districts in a report that details the Statewide, county, and district trends in teacher retention and includes any recommendations that the commissioner may have on State actions that may be initiated to improve teacher retention among various demographic groups. The commissioner will submit the report to the Governor and to the Legislature.
Within six months of the bill’s effective date, the Executive Leadership Council of the New Jersey Education to Earnings Data System will issue a report on teacher workforce projections for the State for the following two years using data provided by the New Jersey Department of Education. The department will provide any data necessary for the report within three months of the bill’s effective date.
Following the issuance of this initial report, the Executive Leadership Council of the Education to Earnings Data System will issue, by March 1 of each year, a report on teacher workforce projections for the subsequent three to five years. The report will include, but not be limited to, information on:
(1) the teaching positions, by certification area, in high demand in the State and existing vacancies;
(2) the number of bilingual teachers needed to provide adequate limited English proficiency programming to students in the State;
(3) the number of computer science teachers needed to provide access to computer science coursework to all students in the State;
(4) the classes and programs that may be eliminated within the next three years; and
(5) the areas in which teachers and school leaders should be prepared so that they can ensure students are ready for the future economy.
The Executive Leadership Council of the New Jersey Education to Earnings Data System will report to the Legislature on January 15 and July 15 of each year on the progress of the annual teacher workforce projection report.
As reported by the committee, Senate Bill No. 2835 (1R) is identical to Assembly Bill No. 5292 (1R), which also was reported by the committee on this date.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that this bill will lead to indeterminate, likely marginal, increases in cost to the Department of Education (DOE) and to school districts. The magnitude of cost increases to the DOE to develop an infrastructure for the collection of information from school districts concerning teacher positions will depend on decisions made by the DOE in implementing this requirement.
The bill requires the DOE to annually compile data submitted by school districts in a report that details the Statewide, county, and district trends in teacher retention. The DOE may incur additional costs to the extent that this report would require additional work hours, assuming that the development of the report is subsumed within the roles of existing staff.
The bill also requires the Executive Leadership Council of the New Jersey Education to Earnings Data System (NJEEDS) to issue certain reports on teacher workforce projections for the State. The State may incur cost increases in the form of providing additional grant funding to the NJEEDS to develop these reports.