NJ school boards say high school start time should be local issue

Legislation recently proposed by state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, and Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, that would mandate a start time of no earlier than 8:30 a.m. for New Jersey high schools is getting some pushback from the New Jersey School Boards Association.

If signed into law, the measure (A3816 / S2462), introduced March 25, would apply to "certain public schools that receive State aid" beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year.

But as NJSBA told The Center Square in a report published Friday, the organization believes school start times are a matter best left to individual districts, not a statewide rule.

Get our free mobile app

Janet Bamford, NJSBA chief public affairs officer, told the publication that local school boards should determine high school start times "in response to local needs, conditions, and community input," listing a number of complicating factors including transportation costs, extracurricular activity scheduling, and impact on younger students, both within families with high schoolers and overall.

However, she acknowledged studies that have shown U.S. adolescents are not getting adequate amounts of sleep, and that later school starts may help.

The Center Square report said the state's largest and most powerful teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association, has not yet reviewed the proposed legislation, but is also aware of such studies, and feels "any reform that might benefit students is well worth considering and implementing."

Coughlin and Gopal's companion bills have the backing of the New Jersey chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Patrick Lavery is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.

School aid for all New Jersey districts for 2022-23

The state Department of Education announced district-level school aid figures for the 2022-23 school year on Thursday, March 10, 2022. They're listed below, alphabetically by county. For additional details from the NJDOE, including specific categories of aid, click here.

NJ county fairs make a comeback: Check out the schedule for 2022

UPDATED 4/10: A current list of county fairs happening across the Garden State for 2022. From rides, food, animals, and hot air balloons, each county fair has something unique to offer.

(Fairs are listed in geographical order from South NJ to North NJ)

Every NJ city and town's municipal tax bill, ranked

A little less than 30 cents of every $1 in property taxes charged in New Jersey support municipal services provided by cities, towns, townships, boroughs and villages. Statewide, the average municipal-only tax bill in 2021 was $2,725, but that varied widely from more than $13,000 in Tavistock to nothing in three townships. In addition to $9.22 billion in municipal purpose taxes, special taxing districts that in some places provide municipal services such as fire protection, garbage collection or economic development levied $323.8 million in 2021.