Under the New Jersey School Ethics Act, any school board member or administrator may request an Advisory Opinion from, or may file a Complaint before, the School Ethics Commission (SEC).  In addition, a member of the SEC or the general public may also file a complaint.

Advisory Opinion

• A school official may ask the SEC if his or her proposed activity would violate the Ethics Act. Such requests must detail the specific conduct or activity and the exact role to be played by the school board member or administrator.
  
  
• A board member or administrator may also seek an advisory opinion concerning proposed conduct of another school official.  In such cases, he or she must send a copy of the request to the official whose proposed conduct is in question.  The school official in question has ten days from the date of the request to respond.
  
  
• Advisory opinions are not made public, except when the SEC, by a vote of at least six of its members, believes that the opinion has widespread application.   When it makes advisory opinions public, the commission deletes the name and district of the official.
  
  
• Advisory opinion requests involve conduct that has not yet occurred. When the SEC receives a request about conduct that has already taken place, it generally dismisses the request.

Complaints

• Complaints address past—not proposed—conduct or activity.
  
  
• Complaints must be filed within one year of notice of the alleged violation of the School Ethics Act, including the school board member codes of conduct and ethics.
  
  
• The person issuing the complaint must set forth facts that led him to believe that the School Ethics Act was violated, the sections of the Act that the person believes were violated, as well as dates of the alleged violations.
  
  
• If an SEC member submits a complaint, he may not participate in subsequent proceedings on that same complaint.