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Gov. Phil Murphy signed a new law this week that requires New Jersey public schools to provide parents of students with disabilities with more information about a child’s annual special education program meeting ahead of time.
The new law mandates that schools provide parents with a written statement of items to be discussed at an annual Individualized Education Program, also known as an IEP, meeting no later than two business days before it takes place. The information should include the student’s current academic levels and functional performance, a list of the names of any required IEP team members who will miss the meeting, along with their input on any services or programs they oversee for the student, and an invitation for parents to provide feedback about the proposed services.
Typically, during those meetings, parents and school staff discuss a student’s IEP, a legally binding plan that outlines the services a student with a disability needs in school.
Previously, the law only required parents to receive details about a meeting’s purpose, time, location, and participants. More information, including reports or documents, was usually provided to parents at least 10 calendar days before an IEP meeting only if the meeting was to determine a student’s eligibility for special education. Parents were also informed in advance if a school team member would miss the meeting and provided that person’s written input.
The law is an update to what New Jersey’s public schools are required to provide parents ahead of an IEP meeting and also establishes an IEP working group in the state’s education department to review the process. The new mandate takes effect in the upcoming school year.
Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, who represents Essex County, introduced the legislation last year in an attempt to give families more time and information to prepare ahead of an IEP meeting, Ruiz told Chalkbeat on Thursday.
“The goal here was to at least have a document before a guardian so that they can go through and start making notes before the meeting,” Ruiz said. “Those 504s and IEPs are hugely voluminous. If English is your second language, it becomes even more difficult.”
A 504 is a plan for students with disabilities who don’t require specialized instruction or services typically included in IEPs but still require accommodations to learn. The new law does not apply to 504 plans.
Under existing state law, parents are given written notice of an IEP meeting “early enough to ensure that they will have an opportunity to attend.”
Peg Kinsell, policy director at the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, a group that supports families of children with disabilities in New Jersey, calls the new law a “first step” in helping parents navigate the IEP process, but added that two business days isn’t enough time for parents to prepare for an IEP meeting.
“Getting a statement that says what the current levels of academic and functional performances is nice, but it’s one section of the IEP,” Kinsell added.
Elizabeth Athos, senior educational equity attorney at Education Law Center, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of public school students, agrees that the new law can help address some of the knowledge gaps that may exist between schools and parents of students with disabilities, but notes that more can be done to make the IEP process run smoothly for parents who may not understand their child’s needs.
“Because of limitations on the information provided,” parents may not “have had a chance to digest and understand” their student’s disability, needs, or IEP, preventing parents “meaningful participation” during those meetings, said Athos.
The new law comes as the number of children needing special education services in New Jersey has grown since 2000. Researchers at Rutgers University found that in New Jersey, autism rates among 8-year-olds without intellectual disabilities spiked by 500% from 2000 to 2016, and overall cases among children with intellectual disabilities tripled during the same period. In Newark, home to New Jersey’s largest school district, researchers found that as of 2020, 1 in 20 Newark children had been diagnosed with autism, compared with 1 in 167 in 2000.
Newark Public Schools has seen an increase in the number of students with disabilities. Last school year, nearly 7,000 students with disabilities enrolled in the district, highlighting a growing need to support students who require a range of special education services. In recent years, the district has faced challenges in supporting them.
At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, several parents of children with disabilities told Chalkbeat Newark that on the first day of school, they were told their child did not have a school placement. Other parents said they were told their child was enrolled at a different school. The district that year had also opened the new Branch Brook Elementary School, formerly known as ECC-North, and welcomed 48 pre-K to second grade students with disabilities in the school’s first year.
In 2022, the state education department found the district had problems with reporting in education plans, notifying parents of meetings, and missing meetings with parents and students with disabilities as part of responsibilities mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, or IDEA. The state ordered the district to take corrective action by November 2022. And in 2019, the state education department also cited the district for failing to meet key mandates related to education plans for students with disabilities.
Kinsell, of the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, also hopes that the state’s new IEP working group, set to be organized in the coming months, will find new solutions to improve the process in schools. The working group’s recommendations will cover areas including comparing IEP practices in different states and districts, reviewing research, identifying legal limitations, and suggesting improvements.
The group, which will be made up of school leaders, teachers, child study team members, parents, and those with experience representing students with disabilities, must create a report with recommendations no later than four months after the group convenes, according to the new law.
Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.
