New Jersey

New Jersey law does not place any caps on charter school growth.

New Jersey law allows new start-ups and public school conversions.

New Jersey law only allows the state commissioner of education to authorize charter schools.

While the law does not require the legislature and governor to regularly review the performance of the state commissioner of education as an authorizer, they can do so at any time. In addition, the ability of the state commissioner of education to continue authorizing can be removed by the legislature and governor (the entities that gave it that authority).

New Jersey law does not include any of the model law's provisions for adequate authorizer funding.

New Jersey law provides application requirements for all schools. It also provides additional application requirements specific to conversion schools and additional application elements specific when using educational service providers. State rules include an expedited application and review process from founders with demonstrable experience operating an educational institution.According to New Jersey law and regulations, applications are submitted to the state commissioner of education, the county superintendent, and the local school board (allowing such local school boards to provide their recommendation to the state commissioner as input), and the state commissioner approves or denies the application.
The law requires the state commissioner to conduct in-depth personal interviews of all qualified applicants (i.e., those making it through the phase one review), and final decisions are made following a successful preparedness visit to perspective charter schools. Nothing is noted that such evaluations include public meetings.

State rules include the definition of a charter agreement to be a written agreement between a charter school and the state commissioner that sets forth criteria the school must satisfy, including, but not limited to, measurable performance goals and indicators in the school’s performance framework.
The law provides that the initial term of a charter is for four years.

The law requires charter schools to provide annual performance, financial, and operational data to the local board of education, county superintendent of schools, and the state commissioner. The law also requires that these reports be made available to the parents or guardians of enrolled students. State rules require the state commissioner to prescribe the format of these reports and requires that they include evidence of how the school is achieving the mission, goals, and objectives of its charter as measured against the performance framework and evidence of financial compliance using generally accepted accounting principles.
Based in part on the annual performance reports prepared by charter schools, the law requires the authorizer to annually assess whether each charter school is meeting the goals of its charter.

New Jersey law empowers the state commissioner to place a charter school on probationary status for an appropriate time period to allow implementation of a remedial plan upon a finding that the school is not operating in compliance with its charter, applicable statutes, or regulations.

New Jersey regulations require that the state department of education must annually issue a public report on each charter school’s academic performance based on their performance framework.
New Jersey law requires schools seeking renewal to apply for it.

New Jersey regulations provide for an expedited renewal process for charter schools that have been deemed high performing for three consecutive years during the most recent charter contract term.

New Jersey law and regulations provide clear renewal criteria, including the review of annual performance reports, student performance on state standardized tests, monitoring visits, annual assessments of student composition of the school, and local district recommendations. State rules note that decisions are to be made based on evidence in alignment with the performance frameworks in their charter.

The law provides that a charter school may be closed for failing to fulfill any condition imposed by the state commissioner of education in connection with the granting of the charter or violating any provision of its charter.

The law allows the state commissioner to grant or deny a renewal application upon a comprehensive review of the school, including the renewal application, the school’s annual reports, comments on the annual reports from the local district, state test scores, monitoring of the school by the county superintendent and state commissioner, annual assessments of student composition of the school, the recommendation of the local district board, and interviews with school leaders, parents, and teachers conducted by the state commissioner.

Under New Jersey law, charters can be renewed for five years.

The law requires the state commissioner to provide written notice of a closure decision to schools but applicable law and regulation offer limited language on due process protections. It also does not require the state commissioner to make all charter renewal, non-renewal, and revocation decisions in a public meeting.

State rules include detailed language regarding school closure protocols, which include timely parent and staff notification, orderly student and record transition, and property and asset disposition.

New Jersey’s law includes a small number of the model law’s provisions for transparency regarding educational service providers. New Jersey law specifically allows a charter school to be established by a private entity in conjunction with teachers and parents, but the law limits the role of such private entities by providing that the school’s name may not include the name of the private entity, members of the private entity cannot constitute a majority of the board, and the private entity may not realize a net profit from its operation of the school. The law requires employees of an ESP to undergo a criminal background check.

New Jersey law provides that charter schools are independent of district control and have all powers necessary or desirable for carrying out the school’s program. It also provides that they are managed by a board of trustees empowered to supervise and control the charter school.

New Jersey law provides that charter schools must provide open enrollment to any student in the state.
New Jersey law requires that a charter school shall not discriminate in its admission policies or practices on the basis of intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, status as a handicapped person, proficiency in the English language, or any other basis that would be illegal if used by a school district.
The law and regulations provide a mandatory preference for students from the local district and returning students enrolled in the previous school year. They also provide an optional preference for siblings of enrolled students.

Under New Jersey law, admissions policies of New Jersey charter schools must, to the maximum extent practicable, seek enrollment of a cross section of the community’s school age population, including racial and academic factors.
The law requires that a lottery must be held if applications exceed available seats. Regulations allow schools to request using weighted lotteries that favor educationally disadvantaged students in an effort to better represent a cross-section of the community’s school-age population.

Instead of providing charters with automatic exemptions from most state and district laws and regulations, New Jersey law provides that exemptions from particular laws, regulations, and policies may be requested in the charter application, except those pertaining to assessment, testing, civil rights, and student health and safety.
New Jersey law does not exempt charter schools from state teacher certification requirements.

New Jersey law requires collective bargaining for public school teachers. Collective bargaining is required on nine topics: wages, insurance or fringe benefits, hours, terms and conditions of employment, class load or size, extracurricular duties, leave, layoffs, and grievance procedures. State law prohibits collective bargaining on six topics: pension or retirement benefits, length of the school year, management rights, transfers or reassignments, dismissal, and evaluation processes of instruments. New Jersey law provides that start-up schools are exempt from district collective bargaining agreements but also provides that conversion schools are not exempt from district collective bargaining agreements.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, New Jersey allowed mandatory agency fees. The Supreme Court decision renders that state law unconstitutional. In anticipation of the ruling, New Jersey passed a law that provides employee organizations with access to contact information for members of the bargaining unit, which may otherwise be exempt from disclosure requirements.
In New Jersey, the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) can certify an exclusive representative. If there is only one organization seeking exclusive representative status, it may choose to be certified by evidence of majority support from employees in the unit (e.g., by signed cards). Otherwise, the PERC will certify the organization by means of an election, which will be decided by majority vote. Details of election are not set in the statute.

New Jersey rules include a definition of a “satellite campus” and allows schools to amend their charters to open a satellite campus, enabling high quality schools to expand their capacity to serve additional students by operating an additional facility. No language is provided regarding the independent fiscal and academic accountability for each campus.

New Jersey regulations allow a secondary charter school student to participate in a sport at his or her school of residence, upon agreement of both principals, if the charter school does not offer that sport.

Under New Jersey law, the school is the local education agency for special education. The law requires the school to provide and fund special education services except for low-incident, high-cost students, for which the resident school district takes the responsibility and funding obligation.

New Jersey law requires the school district of residence to pay directly to the charter school for each student enrolled in the charter school who resides in the district an amount equal to the lower of either 90% of the program budget per pupil for the specific grade level in the district or 90% of the maximum T&E amount (which is defined in state law). The law provides that the per-pupil amount paid to the charter school shall not exceed the program budget per pupil for the specific grade level in the district in which the charter school is located.
The law also provides that for any student enrolled in a charter school in which 90% of the program budget per pupil for the specific grade level is greater than 90% of the maximum T&E amount, the state shall pay the difference between the two amounts.

In the case of a student who was not included in the district's projected resident enrollment for the school year, the law requires the state to pay 100% of the amount required pursuant to subsection b. of this section for the first year of the student's enrollment in the charter school.

New Jersey law allows for substantial funding disparities by some charter schools relative to regular district schools caused by the exclusion of charter schools from state adjustment aid payments.

The law also provides that the district of residence shall pay directly to the charter school any categorical aid attributable to the student, provided the student is receiving appropriate categorical services, and any federal funds attributable to the student.

The law requires local school boards to provide transportation or aid in lieu of transportation for K-12 students attending charter schools.

In a recent national study of charter school funding (University of Arkansas, Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands, 2014), New Jersey charter schools were receiving on average $14,887 per pupil in public funds, while traditional public schools would have received $21,834 for those students. As a result, the state's charter schools were receiving $6,947 per pupil - or 31.8% - less than what the traditional public schools would have received for those students. This figure includes all sources of funding, and analysis reveals significant inequities for both operational and capital funding (see component #19 for information on capital issues).

In 2022, the New Jersey budget included $5 million of charter school facilities improvement aid in the budget. Funds will be awarded as reimbursement grants to charter schools requiring emergent health and safety facilities improvements and will be administered by the New Jersey Department of Education’s Office of Charter and Renaissance Schools.

New Jersey regulations require that the state division of executive services maintain a list of closed, unused, or unoccupied school facilities and make it available on its website.

New Jersey law provides charter schools access to tax-exempt bonds from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. The law provides that a charter school may be located in part of an existing public school building, in space provided on a public work site, in a public building, or any other suitable location and that the facility shall be exempt from public school facility regulations except those pertaining to the health or safety of the pupils.
The New Jersey Redevelopment Authority is authorized to provide tax-exempt financing for charter school capital projects.

New Jersey law requires charter schools to participate in the relevant employee retirement systems.

New Jersey law does not allow full-time virtual charter schools.