Legislative Update: Governor Murphy Signs Final Set of Bills into Law as Term Ends

In the final week of his term, Governor Phil Murphy signed numerous bills into law, including a handful that are relevant to boards of education. Details of those new laws follow below.

Governor Mikie Sherrill assumed office on Tuesday, Jan. 20, a week following the swearing in of the 222nd Legislature. Sherrill also appointed Lily Laux to be her Commissioner of Education, replacing Kevin Dehmer. The 2026-2027 legislative session has now begun, and any bills that were not signed into law before the end of the last session will need to be reintroduced and moved through the normal legislative process to advance.

NJSBA advocacy staff hosted a webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 21, on laws enacted at the end of the previous legislative session, several other measures that did not quite make it to the finish line, and what to expect heading into the 2026-2027 session. A recording of the webinar is available publicly on NJSBA’s YouTube channel.

New Laws

The following bills were signed into law over the last week by Governor Murphy:

Charter School Transparency and Accountability A-5936/S-4713 (P.L.2025, c.277, signed Jan. 16, 2026) modifies certain parts of the “Charter School Program Act of 1995” and other sections of New Jersey law to establish various new requirements for charter schools, charter school boards of trustees, and charter school management organizations. The law addresses numerous areas of charter school oversight, including: public notice and hearing of charter school applications and renewals; charter school applications and consolidation; physical location requirements for charter schools; charter school reporting; charter school renewals and revocations; charter school budget transparency; requirements with respect to charter school boards of trustees and board membership; and additional provisions related to charter management organizations. The NJSBA supported the bill.

Charter School Enrollment and Athletics A-5935/S-4716 (P.L.2025, c.276, signed Jan. 16, 2026) makes several changes to charter school enrollment, student placements, reporting, and athletics. It requires all schools in the state to have a student placement liaison and sets new requirements for exit interviews and the tracking and coordination of students moving between charter schools and traditional public schools. The law also requires charter schools offering interscholastic athletics to join a voluntary association, such as the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. The NJSBA supported the bill.

Instruction on Dangers of Illicit Opioid Substances A-3909/S-2818 (P.L.2025, c.278, signed Jan. 17, 2026), also called the “Illicit Opioid Supply Substances Poisoning Awareness Act,” requires school districts to provide instruction on the dangers of the most prevalent or emerging substances in the illicit opioid supply in New Jersey, as part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. The NJSBA supported the bill.

Expansion of Family Leave Benefits A-3451/S-2950 (P.L.2025, c.279, signed Jan. 17, 2026) revises state laws concerning family leave through the New Jersey Family Leave Act. The law will make eligible for family leave employees who have been employed for at least three months by an employer (a decrease from 12 months) and who have worked for at least 250 base hours during the preceding 12-month period (a decrease from 1,000 base hours). The law also reduces the employee threshold from 30 employees to 15 employees in the definition of “employer.” Finally, the law clarifies that employees who are eligible for both earned sick leave and temporary disability benefits or family temporary disability leave benefits may choose the order in which they take these types of leave but may not receive more than one form of paid leave concurrently. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill.

Revised Definition of Child Abuse and Neglect S-3751/A-5636 (P.L.2025, c.281, signed Jan. 18, 2026) amends the definition of “child” in Section 1 of P.L.1974, c.119 (C.9:6-8.21) to mean: 1) any person less than 18 years of age alleged to have been abused or neglected; or 2) any person less than 21 years of age alleged to have been abused or neglected, or subject to exploitation by a teacher, employee, contractor, or volunteer, whether compensated or uncompensated, of an institution responsible for the care or supervision of that person, as regulated by the Department of Children and Families, including employees of day schools. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill.

Instruction on Cursive Handwriting S-1783/S-2712/A-3865 (P.L.2025, c.284, signed Jan. 19, 2026) requires school districts to incorporate instruction on cursive handwriting into the curriculum for students in elementary schools. The curriculum needs to include activities and instructional materials that help students become proficient in reading and writing cursive legibly by the end of third grade. The NJSBA expressed concerns about the addition of a new instructional mandate. Citing the removal of cursive instruction from the state’s learning standards in 2010, the Association recommended that the decision to include cursive instruction in a district’s curriculum should rest with the local board of education and the trained experts it employs.

Federal Law Enforcement in Sensitive Locations A-6308/S-5036 (P.L.2025, c.401, signed Jan. 20, 2026), also called the “Safe Communities Act,” requires the Attorney General to develop model policies to ensure personal freedom in certain sensitive locations, including public schools, to ensure such institutions remain safe and accessible to all state residents. The Commissioner of Education will have to adopt the model policies relevant to schools and then require public schools (and request private schools) to adhere to those model policies or policies that provide greater protection. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill.

Special Education Transportation Task Force S-3447/A-4607 (P.L.2025, c.301, signed Jan. 20, 2026) establishes the Special Education Task Force. The task force’s purpose is to study and make recommendations for best practices in transporting students who receive special education and related services, including preventing, identifying, and responding to medical and behavioral emergencies. The task force will consist of 23 members, including one representative of the NJSBA. The NJSBA supported the bill.

Health Care Benefits for Disabled Public Employees A-5118/S-4223 (P.L.2025, c.370, signed Jan. 20, 2026) permits members of the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund and Public Employees’ Retirement System, or long-term disability insurance recipients who are receiving disability insurance benefits, to be entitled to health care benefits under the School Employees’ Health Benefits Program and State Health Benefits Program. The law stipulates that such health care benefits are to be free and will not require employee contributions. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill.

Retired Teachers in Nonpublic Grant Program S-4678/A-5930 (P.L.2025, c.317, signed Jan. 20, 2026) amends the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teacher (STEM) grant program established through P.L.2019, c.256 (C.18A:6-137 et seq.) to include retired teachers and faculty members of county colleges under the program. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill after successfully advocating for an amendment that eliminated the requirement that districts notify previously employed, now-retired teachers about the grant program.

Water Quality Notifications A-1400/S-984 (P.L.2025, c.341, signed Jan. 20, 2026) requires the owner or operator of a public water system to immediately notify the governing body of a municipality and the chief administrator of every school served by the system whenever the system violates any drinking water quality standard. The law also requires the owner or operator of the public water system to provide information on suggested remedies that a customer may take to address the violation. The NJSBA supported the bill.

Banning Single-Use Utensils S-3195/A-5157 (P.L.2025, c.298, signed Jan. 20, 2026) prohibits “food service businesses” in New Jersey from providing single-use utensils or condiments under certain circumstances and charges progressive penalties for noncompliance. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill after successfully advocating for schools to be exempted from its provisions.

Pocket Veto

The governor has the option to “pocket veto” any bills passed by the Legislature in the final ten days of the legislative session. This means that rather than signing or actively vetoing a bill, the governor can simply let the session end without taking any action. Like any other bills not signed by the governor, pocket vetoed legislation does not become law and needs to be reintroduced in a future legislative session in order to advance.

Nonpublic School Nursing Services Pilot Program A-6149/S-5029 was pocket vetoed by the governor on Jan. 20, 2026. The bill would have required the Commissioner of Education to establish, supervise, and fund a three-year non-public school nursing services pilot program in an eligible county through a county consortium. It would have required NJDOE to disburse directly to the county consortium an amount equal to the nonpublic nursing services aid that would otherwise be paid to a school district for nursing services provided to students enrolled at a nonpublic school that is part of the county consortium. The NJSBA was monitoring the bill.

To view the full text of any of the bills summarized above, please visit the New Jersey Legislature’s website.