The October readoption of the Department of Education regulations, N.J.A.C. 6A:16, “Programs to Support Student Development,” has many chief school administrators and board members concerned that their policies may need updating.

These regulations have far reaching effects in many areas of school board policy, so now is a good time to start reviewing and updating your district policy manual to ensure that it reflects these changes. You have help: NJSBA Policy Department has reviewed the regulation changes and has updated five policies to help guide school districts through the process.

Policy language changes include:

5141 Health: Updated to include a section which requires a chief school administrator and the school district’s physician and nurse to create an annual nursing services plan.

5141.3 Health Examinations and Immunization Records: Expanded to include the requirement that immunization records need to be checked and updated annually.

5141.4 Child Abuse and Neglect: Reviewed and rewritten. The state Department of Education’s regulation requiring specific detail was repealed. NJSBA reviewed the policy, but kept the detail about how districts should respond to child abuse cases because it provides valuable guidance in this critical area.

6172 Alternative Education: Expanded to reflect new alternative education programs required by state education department regulation.

6173 Home Instruction: Expanded to include new program requirements for home instruction.

The changes to N.J.A.C. 6A:16 have affected many legal references in addition to warranting language changes in the five policies above. In the policies where a legal reference has changed, school districts should review the explanation of the statute and code citations in the legal reference document and update the N.J.A.C. 6A:16 code citation at the bottom of their policies.