The New Jersey Department of Children and Families recently sent a letter to stakeholders answering some common questions related to New Jersey’s Statewide Student Support Services, also known as NJ4S.
Over the past month, the NJDCF has been encouraging public middle and high schools, K-8 elementary schools (for grades 6-8) and charter schools to submit a point of contact to access the NJ4S information system. This access provides these schools (the principal or a delegate) with the ability to apply for evidence-based prevention programming (Tier 2) and brief counseling interventions (Tier 3) for students, as well as consultation to school faculty. The NJ4S information system also allows district representatives (the superintendent or a delegate) to have access to a districtwide dashboard of information.
In its letter, the NJDCF clarifies these important roles in the NJ4S program.
One School Representative at a Time
The NJ4S program is designed to have a single point of contact per school to serve as a liaison to the NJ4S Hub. The NJDCF believes that having a single point of contact for each school will help to avoid duplicate requests from each school. It will also ensure that the requests for prevention programming are vetted internally by the school and that there is a clear point of contact for Hub staff that are interacting with many schools and districts simultaneously. The school representative can be changed at any time within the system.
The Need for Unique Representative Email Addresses for Each School
The NJDCF reported in its letter that it has received a number of requests for a single school representative to apply for services for multiple schools. Based on how the NJ4S system establishes and maintains security, this is not possible. The system requires each school to have its own representative, with a unique email address.
Schools will have to determine for themselves their internal business processes that happen prior to the submission of a request for Tier 2 or Tier 3 services through the NJ4S online portal. But in order to comply with system requirements, each school must have one person designated with system access – and no one can have access to more than one school at a time.
The Same Requirements for School District Representatives
To fully benefit from NJ4S, school districts should sign up both a district representative (one per district) and a school representative for each school in the district (one per school).
These same requirements apply to a school district representative. It is important to have a single point of contact at the district level. As with the school representative, this point of contact can be changed at any time within the NJ4S system. Please note that a district representative cannot also serve as a school representative.
If your school or school district cannot have a single and unique representative per school building, and a single unique district representative, you are urged to contact the NJDCF via email, so it can help facilitate a solution.
Refer to the letter for complete information.