As noted in the Feb. 17, 2026, edition of School Board Notes, starting on March 1, 2026, all public entities, including school districts and charter schools, must publish or advertise legal notices on their own website. The website must be accessible and available to the public free of charge, and a direct hyperlink to the legal notices must be placed on the website’s homepage. The law also requires the Secretary of State to establish its own webpage that includes hyperlinks to the legal notices webpage of each public entity. Similarly, the Secretary of State’s website homepage must include a hyperlink to the directory of legal notices. Each public entity will be required to submit and, if necessary, update the entity’s legal notices hyperlink to the Secretary of State. The law will require each public entity to provide an advertisement at least twice a month for each month in 2026, in an eligible online news publication, that states that the complete text of each legal notice may be obtained or viewed by the public on the website of the public entity and provides the hyperlink to the Secretary of State’s directory.
To date, the Secretary of State has not provided the website to which school districts should provide their public notice website addresses. NJSBA will update its model policies for the membership when more information becomes available. For further information on the entirety of the law’s requirements, please consult with your board attorney.
