Governor Murphy Signs Bills Into Law That Improve the Lives of Individuals With Disabilities

As the 2020-2021 legislative session came to an end on Tuesday, January 11, Governor Murphy signed several pieces of legislation into law that will improve the lives of individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities in the State of New Jersey. Specifically, these new laws allow approved private schools to use current tuition rates while serving students with extended eligibility due to COVID closures, establish a Direct Support Professional Career Development Program, and create a special education unit within the Office of Administrative Law.

Below is the list of bills signed into law that will impact the disability community.

Educational Services

A-6207/S-4222 (Greenwald, Lampitt, Benson/Sweeney)
Eliminates requirement for DOE to set certain tuition rates for approved private schools for students with disabilities in certain cases

S-2160wGR/A-5701 (Sweeney, Oroho, Singer/Carter, Lampitt, Jasey)
Creates special education unit within the Office of Administrative Law; requires annual report

Adult Services

S-4211/A-6228 (Sweeney, Corrado/Benson, Speight, Zwicker)
Establishes county college-based adult centers for transition for individuals with developmental disabilities; makes annual appropriation of $4.5 million

Transportation

A-5336wGR/S-3441 (Benson, Freiman, Vainieri Huttle/Diegnan, Madden)
Requires DHS to establish payment programs for purchase of transportation services from private sector and government transportation service providers

Employment

S-4210/A-6062 (Sweeney, Greenstein/Greenwald, McKnight, Mukherji)
Requires Economic Development Authority to establish loan program to assist certain businesses with funding to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities

A-5294/S-3418 (Speight, Vainieri Huttle, Verrelli/Gopal, Madden)
Provides fast track hiring and advancement employment opportunities by State for persons with significant disabilities

A-5296/S-3426 (Speight, Vainieri Huttle, McKnight/T. Kean, Schepisi)
Provides for employment by State of certain persons with disabilities

Direct Service Professionals

S-4102/A-6230 (Sweeney, Ruiz/Benson, Mejia, Zwicker)
Establishes Direct Support Professional Career Development Program; appropriates $1,000,000

With the start of the 2022-2023 legislative session, Autism New Jersey will continue to track legislation that impacts the autism community and continue to report any developments to our members. You can review our priority legislation by visiting our legislation page. If you have questions about previous or current legislation, please contact publicpolicy@autismnj.org.