The School Funding Reform Act (SFRA), New Jersey's school finance law, requires the Governor, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education, to review certain components of the school funding formula every three years. The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) issued four Educational Adequacy Reports (EAR) between 2013 and 2022, but none…

There is no question that students who experience homelessness, like all students, are entitled to be educated. A federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, requires states to provide homeless children and youth with the same access to free appropriate public education as is available to other students. The Act also requires…

Driving may increase mobility and independence for adolescents with autism without intellectual disability (autism spectrum disorder); however, little is known about rates of licensure. To compare the proportion of adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder who acquire a learner's permit and driver's license, as well as the rate at…

Public education funding relies on revenues from a variety of sources, from local taxpayers to federal programs targeting students with specific needs. The vast sum of funding collected--in excess of $600 billion annually--often masks which entities fund the education of our nation's youth. Questions of funding adequacy and equity across school…

The Citywide Education Progress Reports evaluate how a city is doing across three goals: (1) The education system should be continuously improving; (2) All students should have access to a high-quality education; and (3) The education strategy should be rooted in the community. Across each goal, indicators are presented of system reforms and…

Based on a 180-day school year, any student who misses 18 days or more per year--or about two days per month--is considered chronically absent. An alarming 4,328 Newark students in grades kindergarten through 3rd grade were chronically absent during the 2013-14 school year. When young students miss too much school, they will likely struggle…

Children in New Jersey's foster care system are more likely to remain in their home school when they enter foster care, thanks to a law passed in 2010, giving these fragile children improved educational stability. The law allows children to remain in their "school of origin" when they are placed in foster care, even if the foster home is…

Access to safe, affordable, and convenient transportation shapes the "geography of opportunity" for many children and youth. This study looks at how ?localities across the country are implementing new and innovative alternative approaches to student transportation that expand regional transportation access for K-12 students, improve…

Access to safe, affordable, and convenient transportation shapes the 'geography of opportunity' for many children and youth. This study looks at how ?localities acrossthe country are implementing new and innovative alternative approaches to student transportation that expand regionaltransportation access for K-12 students, improve…

As cities across the country and globe continue to generate new solutions to a wide variety of vexing problems, sharing information about what works and what doesn't has become more important than ever. Yet, outside of a few prominent policies, the vast majority of successful municipal experiments never reach a national audience or, for that…

Transportation challenges can often be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to having a successful vocational experience. The author presents a personal account of the difficulties people with disabilities encounter in trying to get themselves to their workplaces due to the limitations of various mobility services.

This document has been developed by the New Jersey Department of Education with the assistance of the TA Customizer Project funded by the U.S. Department of Education Charter Schools Program (CSP) and conducted by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). Its focus is on providing information and technical…

This report describes the changes brought about by Project Redirection in New Jersey's Department of Human Services Division of Developmental Disabilities (formerly the Division of Mental Retardation), which now serves not only persons with mental retardation and autistic adults but also those individuals with developmental disabilities. Reports…

The Rural Manpower Development Program (RMDP) is an agency of the New Jersey Office of Economic Opportunity established for the purpose of demonstrating the feasibility of a comprehensive manpower service for unemployed or underemployed disadvantaged people from the rural areas of New Jersey. Included in this achievement report is historical and…

Major components of a study conducted in 1977 and 1978 were: (1) an examination of existing literature on migrant transportation; (2) collection of pertinent empirical data from federal, state, and migrant work camp records; and (3) vehicle counts and observation at 32 selected locations in 11 destination states in the western, midwestern, and…