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3-31-14 Education in the News
Star Ledger - NJ judge's ruling may spur more schools to sue bullies, families...'Thanks to a recent court ruling, school officials now have the ability to get an alleged bully’s attention with this simple warning: If your behavior doesn’t change, it could cost your parents big bucks.'

NJ Spotlight - As Statewide Testing Looms, Lawmakers Start to Raise Questions...Concerns being raised on both sides of aisle about who is being tested and how the results will be used '...State Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) was the latest to drop a package of new bills that would limit the use of the standardized tests as New Jersey transitions into the new online testing, known as PARCC...'

Star Ledger - Somerset Vo-Tech to charge tuition fees to sending districts in the county

Star Ledger - NJ judge's ruling may spur more schools to sue bullies, families

By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 31, 2014 at 6:31 AM, updated March 31, 2014 at 7:33 AM

Thanks to a recent court ruling, school officials now have the ability to get an alleged bully’s attention with this simple warning: If your behavior doesn’t change, it could cost your parents big bucks.

Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone ruled earlier this month that districts being sued by victims of harassment and bullying can bring the bullies and their parents into the case to share any potential financial liability.

The decision is the first of its kind, lawyers say. And it will likely mean more schools — in New Jersey and across the country — will follow the lead of Hunterdon Central and Flemington-Raritan Regional districts and seek compensation from those who performed the harassing acts, said Claudio Cerullo, founder of the nonprofit organization Teach Anti Bullying and a former New Jersey principal.

"It will send vibrations throughout the country," Cerullo said. "New Jersey is the model for the United States with respect to this issue, and it was only a matter of time before a district turns around and says we need to offset our costs."

Robert Gold, the attorney for the Hunterdon Central Regional School District, argued that the schools should be able to bring in the students and their families who are mentioned in the lawsuit brought by the alleged victim, identified only as V.B. The lawsuit claims years of harassment, and details incidents in which students pulled down the alleged victim’s pants to expose his underwear and threw pasta on him during lunch.

The original lawsuit claims school officials failed to stop the harassment, a charge the district denies.

"When I was reviewing the case, I was thinking the real source of the problem is the children behind the allegations," Gold said. "What kind of parental supervision (was there)? As lawyers, when we look at these things, we ask are there other potentially culpable parties."

"Parents are going to have to supervise and instruct their children not to engage in this conduct, to act more appropriately or more dignified," Gold said.

Threatening financial damages in order to change behavior is not new in legal circles, but it hasn’t been tried in the school harassment arena, attorney Silvana Raso said.

"It’s a proven strategy. When people have to pay, they will take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again," Raso said. "But people are not using the law as a way to win the lottery. These are parents who are so frustrated by the abuse their child is subjected to."

The tactic was successful for Timothy Wedeen, a Tenafly attorney who filed a lawsuit in 2012 on behalf of a student at High Point Regional High School who claimed she was ostracized and demeaned by classmates.

The lawsuit sought $1 million in damages from the Sussex County school district and another $1 million from the families of the alleged bullies.

"Our main goal was to improve the school experience for the plaintiff, which was achieved pretty quickly," Wedeen said. "The alleged aggressor left the school … and my client thought of it as a new day."

Both sides agreed to drop the lawsuit as a result of the improved school climate, Wedeen said.

Brian Cige, the attorney for V.B., said his client sued the school — and did not include the families of the alleged bullies — because the basis of his client’s claim is that the harassment was discrimination. Just as an employee would sue his company for harassment, and not his supervisor, Cige’s claim targeted the school.

The lawsuit is in the discovery phase, when attorneys request written answers from all parties. While the ruling may complicate the case, Cige said it could have far-reaching effects on other bullying cases.

"This has the potential to have national implications," he said. "A perfect storm of facts and law and timeliness led to a strong decision, and that sends a message to alleged bullies and their parents that they need to take responsibility or dire consequences are possible."

 

 

NJ Spotlight - As Statewide Testing Looms, Lawmakers Start to Raise Questions

John Mooney | March 31, 2014

Concerns being raised on both sides of aisle about who is being tested and how the results will be used

As New Jersey moves closer to a new generation of statewide testing, that progress is being paced by several bills looking to put some controls -- or cautions -- on the new exams.

State Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) was the latest to drop a package of new bills that would limit the use of the standardized tests as New Jersey transitions into the new online testing, known as PARCC.

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Among them is a bill that would prohibit the use of commercially developed tests below third grade. Another would require districts to inform parents of exactly which standardized tests are being administered each year to their children.

A third bill would delay using the new tests, aimed for launch in 2015, as a factor in the state’s new teacher evaluation system.

If approved, the bills would face long odds from ever being signed by Gov. Chris Christie, but Jasey said this weekend that she wanted to prompt further discussion as much as make any specific changes to the state’s testing regimen.

“We need a conversation about what we are doing,” said Jasey, a member of the Assembly education committee. “How much instructional time are we losing. Is there an overlap in the tests? We need to talk about this.”

”Testing has its place, but are we losing sight of what good assessment is about,” she said. “It’s to inform instruction, not to punish.”

The concerns about state testing are hardly new, but there does appear to be a broader appeal among legislators as New Jersey embarks on the new PARCC exams, an entirely online system adopted by New Jersey and 16 other states.

The new tests, aligned with the Common Core State Standards, would expand both the amount of time and the number of students taking the yearly exams to measure not just student gains, but also progress for individual teachers and schools.

On the eve of the new exams, state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) has lately spoken against an over-reliance on testing in state education policy. State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the prime architect of the state’s new teacher tenure and evaluation law, has said she also wants to downplay the initial PARCC results -- at least for determining teacher ratings.

State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly education committee, said at a recent forum of the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association said he would support such measures.

“I think it is time we slow down some of this implementation and we take a look to exactly where we’re at,” he said.

From the other side of the aisle, state Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth), a new member of Assembly’s education committee, has taken the lead and filed bills that would limit the sharing of student information culled from testing and another that would prohibit any standardized testing not required by state or federal law.

Jasey said she has noticed a change in the mood of legislators herself, as she has found many of them eager to join as sponsors and co-sponsors of her latest bills.

“There is lots of interest and it crosses across the state and party lines,” she said. “We want to get this right.”

 

Star Ledger - Somerset Vo-Tech to charge tuition fees to sending districts in the county

By Bill Wichert/The Star-Ledger The Somerset Reporter Follow on Twitter
on March 30, 2014 at 7:45 AM, updated March 30, 2014 at 1:50 PM

 
 
 

BRIDGEWATER — For the upcoming school year, school districts in Somerset County will face what has become common in most other parts of the state: a tuition bill from the county vocational-technical school.

The Somerset County Vocational and Technical Schools in Bridgewater is charging new tuition fees to districts in the county where vocational-technical students live. Nearly all of the county vocational-technical schools in New Jersey already collect such payments.

Most of the SCVTS funding comes from the county, and officials said the tuition fees will help offset the county’s share.

“It’s not like we’re making money off this at all,” said Freeholder Director Patrick Scaglione, adding that county officials are “still subsidizing the vo-tech to the tune of millions of dollars a year.”

The new tuition fees will be $1,000 for a full-time student and $500 for a share-time student, meaning a student who also attends the home district. The new fees are estimated to total slightly less than $500,000 in the school’s roughly $15 million budget for the 2014-2015 school year, said SCVTS Superintendent Chrys Harttraft.

Sending districts in the county currently pay tuition for SCVTS students involved in two specific programs, but the new fees would represent the first tuition payments for regular vocational programs, Harttraft said. Sending districts in other counties already pay higher tuition rates for SCVTS students from those municipalities, she said.

The new fees, however, are below the more than $3,000 in full-time, per-student tuition rates that state officials have said the school could charge its sending districts, Harttraft said.

“They have to…make some very hard decisions at their level to add another line item, and that’s why we were really concerned with the amount that we were gonna be charging,” Harttraft said. “So this is a nominal amount in comparison to what it costs to educate the students here.”

Across the state, per-student tuition rates charged by county vocational-technical schools for in-county students range from $500 to $9,298 for regular education students, and from $500 to $11,500 for special education students, according to Harttraft.

The impact on school districts in Somerset County will vary depending on the number of SCVTS students from each sending district. For example, the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District has projected $129,000 for the new tuition expenses, while the Montgomery Township School District is budgeting $2,500, officials said.

Thomas Venanzi, the school business administrator in Montgomery, said “it’s obviously a concern that it’s an added cost,” but noted that the new fees will have a minor effect on a district like Montgomery.

“In the county, we’re used to sending those students to the vo-tech school at no tuition…this is something that we need to adjust to,” Venanzi said.

Of the 21 county vocational-technical schools in the state, SCVTS is one of only three schools that do not charge tuition to sending districts in their counties, said Judy Savage, executive director of the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools. The other two schools are in Middlesex and Hudson counties, Savage said.

Faced with limited funding on the state and county levels, more county vocational districts have turned to charging those tuition fees, Savage said. For instance, Sussex County Technical School began charging a tuition fee in recent years, Savage said.

“It’s a necessary thing to do at this point in time,” said Savage, adding that Somerset County “has funded the vocational school very, very generously over the years…and now some small local contribution is needed in Somerset County just as it is in the majority of other counties in the state so that the programs can be maintained at their current level.”

RELATED COVERAGE

Sussex County Technical School joins growing number of N.J. vo-tech schools in charging tuition to sending districts