SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
SENATE, No. 3910
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MAY 12, 2025
The Senate Education Committee favorably reports a Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 3910.
This committee substitute is to be known as the “New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act.”
The substitute modified various statutes governing early childhood education in an effort to codify and expand on requirements that the Department of Education has previously established for providing State-funded preschool to build and sustain universal access to high-quality programs.
Preschool Expansion Grants
The substitute requires the Department of Education (DOE) to provide annual preschool expansion grants, defined as grants expanding free access to high-quality preschool for resident three- and four-year children in in districts that do not, at the time of application for a grant, provide State-funded, high-quality, free preschool programs. Under the substitute, the Department’s preschool expansion grant program must include certain requirements.
Preschool Education Aid
The substitute also revises requirements for preschool education aid. The revisions include an update to the formula for determining each district’s allocation of preschool education aid to eliminate the use of District Factor Groups and specify the use of projected FTE enrollment for the upcoming year. The substitute also requires districts that receive preschool education aid to meet certain criteria concerning partnerships with licensed child care providers and Head Start programs, program planning, and self-assessment.
Preschool Cost-Sharing Pilot Program
The substitute establishes a three-year pilot program for a methodology for sharing preschool education costs between the State and participating school districts. A participating district is any district receiving preschool education aid for the first time in 2025-2026, 2026-2027, or 2027-2028 school years. Under the pilot program, for participating school districts, preschool education aid is to be calculated by multiplying the district’s district aid percentage by the amount calculated under the preschool education aid formula applicable to districts that received preschool education aid in the 2024-2025 school year. District aid percentage for this purpose is to equal to the greater of the district aid percentage as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L.2000, c.72 (C.18A:7G-3) or 40 percent.
Universal Preschool Implementation Steering Committee
The committee substitute establishes in the Department of Education a Universal Preschool Implementation Steering Committee composed of representatives of various State agencies and the New Jersey Legislature.
Other Early Childhood Education Provisions
The committee substitute also:
· requires the DOE, Department of Children and Families, and Department of Human Services to maintain and annually update certain information regarding preschool and child care providers on their respective internet websites;
· requires these departments, in consultation with stakeholders, submit a report to the Legislature on the status of preschool education in the State and the efficacy of the mixed delivery method of preschool education;
· requires numerous State agencies to publish guidance on a variety of topics related to expanding access to high-quality preschool education in areas of greatest need; and
· removes preschool students from the population used to determine approved area for unhoused students for purposes of the DOE’s administration of school facilities projects.
Finally, the committee substitute requires each elementary-serving school district in the State to establish a full-day kindergarten program no later than the beginning of the 2029-2030 school year. Attendance at the kindergarten program shall be free. School districts not providing full-day kindergarten by the effective date of this bill may satisfy this requirement by entering a sending-receiving relationship with an adjacent school district.