SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3862

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JANUARY 8, 2026

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3862.

      As amended and reported, this bill authorizes the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to expand the services provided by the NJ Statewide Student Support Services program to include eating disorder awareness, prevention, and counseling services.

      Under the provisions of the bill, the DCF would be authorized to require a regional hub contracted with the DCF to administer the NJ Statewide Student Support Services program in the hub’s vicinage, when conducting a community-based needs assessment of the available services relating to the treatment and prevention of eating disorders to review and assess the information and services relating to such treatment and prevention.

      The assessment, which will be conducted in consultation with the hub’s Advisory Group, is to evaluate the needs of a community for services relating to the treatment and prevention of eating disorders and to determine whether the students in the community, grades K through 12, are receiving such services.  Based on the results of the assessment, the regional hub is to develop and adopt policies and procedures, as outlined in the bill, to provide students in grades K-12 with eating disorder awareness, prevention, and counseling services, as appropriate, according to the tiered services administered by the hub.

      As defined in the bill: a “regional hub” means one of the 15 hubs operated by service providers contracted with the DCF to provide and administer social, emotional, youth mental health, and prevention services provided through the NJ Statewide Student Support Services program to students in grades K-12 and their families, and “tiered services” means targeted services offered through the three-tiered system used by the program to provide social, emotional, youth mental health, and prevention services, and referrals to community-based supports and services to students in grades K-12 and their families.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to authorize DCF to require regional hubs contracted with the DCF, when conducting a community-based needs assessment of the available services of the NJ Statewide Support Services program, to review and assess the information and services relating to the treatment and prevention of eating disorders.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) concludes that this bill may increase State costs by an indeterminate amount due to the provision of eating disorder awareness, prevention, and counseling services under the NJ Statewide Student Support Services program, to the extent that such services are not currently provided under the program. These services fall under the scope of the program’s current mission to provide mental health services to New Jersey youth.

      The OLS assumes that any costs for a program hub to assess the need for eating disorder related services within the hub’s vicinage, as required under the bill, would be incorporated into the hub’s existing operating budget. This task largely aligns with each hub’s current responsibility of responding to the needs of the hub’s community.