Bill > S2383

Introduced Session

This bill requires the Commissioner of Education to establish a three-year "Bridge Year Pilot Program." Under the pilot program, each school district is required to offer students in the graduating class of 2021 and the graduating class of 2022 the opportunity to pursue a bridge year during the year immediately following graduation from high school. A nonpublic school may elect to participate in the Bridge Year Pilot Program. Through the establishment of the Bridge Year Pilot Program, it is the intent of the sponsor to provide students, who lost time engaging in educational and extracurricular activities and sports programs due to the public health state of emergency caused by coronavirus disease 2019, an opportunity to make up for a major interruption in their scholastic careers and to assist student-athletes in recouping a lost year of recruitment and crucial playing time. To be eligible for the bridge year, a student must be 19 years old or younger and cannot not turn 20 years old at any time during the bridge year, except as may otherwise be provided in the student's individualized education program. A student pursuing a bridge year will enroll at a county college as a non-matriculated student and will enroll in 12 credits in each of the fall and spring semesters. The bill generally requires students to take courses at the county college that serves the county of their host high school, but they are given flexibility in certain circumstances to take course credits at other institutions of higher education. The student must maintain a grade point average of 2.25 in order to remain in the bridge year program. Under the bill, a county college or four-year institution of higher education will charge students participating in a bridge year a maximum of $145 per credit inclusive of all fees, except that fees associated with specific courses or with the use of on-campus science laboratories may be charged at a maximum of $45 per course. Students participating in a bridge year will be eligible for student financial aid under the Tuition Aid Grant Program and the New Jersey Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship Program if they meet all eligibility requirements for those programs other than full-time enrollment in a degree program during the bridge year. A student who pursues a bridge year will be permitted to participate in a winter or a spring sport sanctioned by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) and extracurricular activities at the student's host high school, which is defined under the bill as the high school that the student attended as a junior in high school. A student will not be eligible to participate in any fall sport. In order to participate in a winter or spring sport during a student's bridge year, the student must turn 19 years of age after September 1 of his bridge year. Under the bill, a student participating in a sport during the bridge year is required to enroll in at least nine but less than 12 credits, during the semester of participation in the sport. In the event that a student pursuing a bridge year elects to participate in a winter or spring sport sanctioned by the NJSIAA, the NJSIAA is required to waive the eight semester rule, under which a student is not eligible for high school athletics after the expiration of eight consecutive semesters following the student's entrance into the ninth grade. The NJSIAA is directed to confer with the National Collegiate Athletic Association or any other similar entities to ensure that any student participating in a spring sport during a bridge year pursuant to the bill will be eligible to declare as a college recruit and participate in intercollegiate athletics.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Mila Jasey (D)*,  Pam Lampitt (D)*,  Steven Oroho (R)*,  Teresa Ruiz (D)*,  Paul Sarlo (D)*,  Stephen Sweeney (D)*,  Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D)*,  Dawn Addiego (D),  Christopher Bateman (R),  Daniel Benson (D),  Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D),  Thomas Giblin (D),  Vin Gopal (D),  Tom Kean (R),  John McKeon (D),  Holly Schepisi (R),  Bob Singer (R), 

Approved P.L.2020, c.41. (on 06/26/2020)

Official Document