SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3715

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 1, 2026

      The Senate Education Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3715.

      As amended, this bill requires a student determined by a school district to have committed any bias incident on school property, at any school-sponsored function, or on a school bus to meet with a mental health care professional employed by the district once a week for a minimum of nine months.  The bill requires each school district to employ at least one mental health care professional with expertise in student counseling and training in implicit bias, racial equity, or cultural competence or humility to provide these services to the schools of the district.

      The bill requires a school district to place a student in an alternative education program if: (1) a student’s parent or guardian refuses to consent to student participation in the meetings with the mental health care professional; or (2) a student is reported for engaging in a subsequent bias incident following completion of the meetings with the mental health care professional.

      The bill requires a mental health care professional meeting with a student pursuant to the provisions of the bill to: (1) provide educational resources to assist the student in understanding the impact of the student’s conduct; (2) offer a supportive environment for the student to discuss and explore the potential motivation behind the student’s conduct; and (3) seek to determine whether a mental health condition may have contributed to the student’s actions.

      Under the bill, a school district is required to develop and implement a Racial and Bias Intervention Plan that includes numerous components for each student determined to have engaged in a bias incident.

      The bill also requires school districts to report all reported bias incidents to the Department of Education within 72 hours of the report of the incident using a standardized reporting system to be established by the Commissioner of Education.  Under the bill, the department is required to compile and publish quarterly dashboards and an Annual Statewide Bias in Schools Report on the department’s Internet website that is to include certain listed information. 

      Finally, the provisions of the bill are to be construed as supplemental to, and not in conflict with, the “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act.”

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

· replace reference to a State-certified school psychologist with a mental health care professional; and

· define mental health care professional to mean a person who provides mental health services and is licensed or otherwise authorized, pursuant to Title 45 of the Revised Statutes, to practice a health care profession that is regulated by one of the following: the State Board of Medical Examiners; the State Board of Psychological Examiners; the State Board of Social Work Examiners; the State Board of Marriage and Family Therapy Examiners; the Alcohol and Drug Counselor Committee, the Professional Counselor Examiners Committee, and the Certified Psychoanalysts Advisory Committee.