Directs DOE to create New Jersey Education Funding Portal to make available to school districts and public State school aid information.

A1500

ASSEMBLY, No. 1500

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman ROY FREIMAN

District 16 (Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset)

Assemblywoman MITCHELLE DRULIS

District 16 (Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset)

Assemblyman ROBERT J. KARABINCHAK

District 18 (Middlesex)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Sampson

SYNOPSIS

���� Directs DOE to create New Jersey Education Funding
Portal to make available to school districts and public State school aid
information.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act
concerning transparency of school funding and
supplementing P.L.2007, c.260.�

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

���� 1.� a.� The Department of
Education shall create, maintain, and update, as appropriate, a New Jersey
Education Funding Portal on the department�s Internet website.� The portal shall
make available to school districts and members of the public the data inputs
and calculations used by the department in formulating State school aid for all
school districts under the �School Funding Reform Act of 2008,� P.L.2007, c.260
(C.18A:7F-43 et al.) and P.L.2018, c.67 (C.18A:7F-67 et al.).� The portal shall
allow individuals to adjust certain data inputs for a school district,
including enrollment, equalized property values, and district income, and show
an estimate of how these changes would impact the district�s State aid.

���� b.� The portal shall provide
user-friendly plain language to specify the:

���� (1) manner in which school
district adequacy budgets and local shares are calculated;

���� (2) current methodology of
measuring and weighting at-risk students and students with limited English
proficiency;�

���� (3)� weights applied to
students in different grade levels, as well as those applied to students
enrolled in county vocational school districts;

���� (4)� current methodology used
to calculate the geographic cost adjustment;

���� (5)� current methodology used
to calculate the amount of State funding a school district receives to educate
its special education population;

���� (6)� provision of
extraordinary special education aid and the cost thresholds used as the bases
for reimbursement of extraordinary special education costs; and

���� (7) methodologies used to
calculate security categorical aid and transportation aid.�

���� c.� The portal shall be
searchable by school district and shall include, for each school district:

���� (1) measurements of the
budgeted local share, district income, equalized valuation, and resident
enrollment;

���� (2) the total amount of State
school aid received in each of the most recent three school years; and

���� (3) the amount received by the
district for each type of categorical State aid in each of the most recent
three school years.

���� d.� The portal shall include
links to:

���� (1)� relevant State laws,
regulations, and guidelines pertaining to school funding;

���� (2) current budgets for each
school district and, as available, proposed budgets for the upcoming school
year; and

���� (3) the Educational Adequacy
Report issued by the commissioner pursuant to section 4 of P.L.2007, c.260, s.3
(C.18A:7F-46).�

���� 2.��� This act shall take
effect on the first day of the fourth month next following the date of
enactment.

STATEMENT

���� This bill directs the
Department of Education to create, maintain, and update a New Jersey Education
Funding Portal.� The portal is to make available to school districts and members
of the public the data inputs and calculations used by the department in
formulating State school aid for all school districts and allow individuals to
estimate the effects of changes to enrollment, equalized property value.

���� Under the bill, the portal is
to provide user-friendly plain language to specify the:

���� (1) manner in which school
district adequacy budgets and local shares are calculated;

���� (2) current methodology of
measuring and weighting at-risk students and students with limited English
proficiency;�

���� (3)� weights applied to
students in different grade levels, as well as those applied to students
enrolled in county vocational school districts;

���� (4)� current methodology used
to calculate the geographic cost adjustment;

���� (5)� current methodology used
to calculate the amount of State funding a school district receives to educate
its special education population;

���� (6)� provision of
extraordinary special education aid and the cost thresholds used as the bases
for reimbursement of extraordinary special education costs; and

���� (7) methodologies used to
calculate security categorical aid and transportation aid.�

���� The bill also requires the
portal to be searchable by school district and include, for each school
district:

���� (1) measurements of the
budgeted local share, district income, equalized valuation, and resident
enrollment;

���� (2) the total amount of State
school aid received in each of the most recent three school years; and

���� (3) the amount received by the
district for each type of categorical State aid in each of the most recent
three school years.

���� Finally, the bill requires the
portal to include links to: relevant State laws, regulations, and guidelines
pertaining to school funding;

current budgets for each school
district and, as available, proposed budgets for the upcoming school year; and
the Educational Adequacy Report.��