Bill > S2409

Introduced Session

This bill requires that the State Board of Education, within six months of the bill's effective date, establish a program to pay the high school equivalency exam fees on behalf of low-income individuals. The bill defines a low-income individual as one who lives in a household in which the household income is not greater than 185 percent of the most recent federal poverty guidelines. The program would not provide payment for more than one exam for an individual. The State cost of the fees would be paid from the portion of the Workforce Development Partnership Fund that is currently used to fund, at the discretion of the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, the purposes enumerated in subsection a. of section 4 of P.L.1992, c.43 (C.34:15D-4). The State board currently accepts three exams as the basis for awarding a State-issued high school diploma to an individual: 1) the GED, which costs $120; 2) Hi-SET, which costs $90; and TASC, which costs $92.

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Teresa Ruiz (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 04/05/2018)