New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on June 16 signed legislation (S3434/A5366) that will offer an additional year of special education and related services to three classes of students with disabilities.
“These students would otherwise be aging out of our educational system because they will turn 21 years old during the 2020-21 or the 2021-22 or the 2022-23 school years,” Murphy said during his June 16 media briefing.
Determinations will be made at the local level by district Individualized Education Plan teams, added Murphy.
“Working with the Department of Education, we will be allocating federal funds made available through the American Rescue Plan to cover the cost of this extension, which while difficult to estimate, could be up to approximately $600 million dollars,” Murphy said.
When asked by a reporter why it took so long for him to sign S3434/A5366, Murphy said, “We just want to make sure with every single bill that we vet it completely, we review it completely, understand it completely … it’s a lot of money, but frankly, on this one, there’s no amount of money that we shouldn’t be willing to throw at these folks and their families.”