(TRENTON) – Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Jerry Green and Assembly Education Chairman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr. on Friday asked the state’s acting education commissioner to extend the deadline for compliance with the new criminal background check law for school board members.
“While we firmly stand behind this law and its intention, we are concerned about reports regarding the implementation of the law,” wrote Green (D-Union/Middlesex/Somerset) and Diegnan (D-Middlesex). “It appears that some board members who have not yet complied were unaware of the requirements and the deadlines for compliance. Additionally, some were unable to comply based on the backlogs for fingerprinting.”
Green and Diegnan encouraged acting Commissioner Christopher Cerf “to provide flexibility to individual board members who request additional time to comply.”
“The purpose of the law is to protect our children from board of education members with a criminal history, not to remove dedicated members who did not comply in a timely manner,” Green and Diegnan wrote.
