Gov. Murphy Signs 19 Bills Into Law, Mandates School Recess In NJ

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed 19 bills into law on Friday, including legislation that now requires recess for elementary school students and instruction on the consequences of sexting.

Murphy signed legislation sponsored by Sens. Shirley K. Turner and Patrick Diegnan Jr. that requires public school districts to provide a daily recess period to elementary school students.

The new law will require public school districts to provide a daily recess period of at least 20 minutes for students in grades kindergarten through 5. The recess period would be required to be held outdoors, if feasible.

Under the law, a student could not be denied recess for any reason, other than as a consequence of a violation of the district’s code of student conduct, including a harassment, intimidation, or bullying investigation.

Additionally, a school district should avoid denying a student recess more than twice per week. A school district will not be required to provide a recess period on a substantially shortened school day.

Turner, D-Hunterdon/Mercer, said recess time "helps children adjust to school and improves their readiness to learn.”

“Students are under constant pressure between exams, homework, and the amount of time they should be in the classroom," she said. "Now we will provide a daily recess period of at least 20 minutes that will also help them to socialize with other children and to learn how to communicate and develop their creativity.”

“We are thankful for the opportunity our children will get to interact with other children,” said Diegnan, D-Middlesex. “Our children needed to socialize more and in today's world it is seemingly harder and harder for our children to find time just to play and to be kids. The new law will address this common sense goal.”

The law will take effect during the 2019-2020 school year.

Teach consequences of sexting

A bill sponsored by Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz requiring school districts to include instruction on the consequences of distributing sexually explicit images through electronic means, as part of New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, was signed into law.

“We needed to reach out to teens about the dangers of sexting. I applaud Governor Murphy for signing the bill and for allowing us to help reinforce information our children need to protect themselves. This law will ensure schools educate students about sexting consequences and about how to prevent it in the future’, said Ruiz, D-Essex.

The new law will require a board of education to teach the social, emotional and legal consequences of the teenage practice of “sexting,” sending a sexually explicit text message. The instruction will occur once during the middle school grades in an appropriate place in the curriculum as part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education.

The law also requires the commissioner of Education to provide school districts with age-appropriate sample learning activities and resources designed to implement this requirement.

Here are other pieces of legislation that were signed into law:

Unemployment compensation in labor disputes

A bill sponsored by Senate Labor Committee Vice Chair Joseph F. Vitale and Sen. Vin Gopal to permit individuals who are unemployed because of a labor dispute to collect unemployment compensation under certain circumstances is now law after being signed by the governor.

The new law, S-1046, will allow unemployment compensation during a labor dispute if it was caused by the failure of an employer to comply with an agreement or existing labor laws. It specifies that if a dispute is caused by any other reason, unemployment compensation would not be available for the first 30 days of unemployment.

The bill outlines that a waiting period would not apply if the employer hires a permanent replacement worker and that any hired replacement workers would be presumed to be permanent unless the employer certifies in writing that the unemployed individual would be able to return to their position when the labor dispute ends.

“It’s been long recognized that workers’ rights are human rights and that it is just and fair to uphold workers as they struggle to better their working conditions, compensation and benefits,” said Vitale, D-Middlesex. “This bill provides the framework needed to protect New Jersey’s workers from financial hardship while they exercise their right to fight for safe and fair working conditions.”

Increase access to mail-in-ballots

Legislation sponsored by Sens. James Beach and Nilsa Cruz-Perez making voting by mail in the Garden State easier was signed into law.

“Voting by mail makes it easier for all residents to participate in our democratic process,” said Beach, D-Camden/Burlington. “Whether it is a senior citizen who cannot leave the house, or a full-time worker whose job makes it difficult to leave to vote, mail-in-ballots continue to make it a little easier for everyone to vote on their time, not when the polls are open.”

Voters are now allowed to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot when registering to vote. Voters who apply for vote-by-mail ballots will receive mail-in-ballots for every future election unless they are deemed inactive, request to not receive vote-by-mail ballots, or are removed from the voter rolls.

Those who voted by mail in the 2016 election will be automatically enrolled as well. Voters still retain the option of voting by mail for a single election.

All vote-by-mail ballots will be accepted up to 48 hours after the polls close if the ballot is postmarked on the day of, or the day before the election. Deadlines for the certification of election will be pushed by two days to reflect this change.

Here is the full list of bills that Murphy signed into law:

• A837 (Land, Andrzejczak, DeAngelo, Mazzeo/Diegnan, Van Drew) – Requires public utility to charge veterans' organization residential rate for service delivered to property at which veterans' organization primarily operates.
• A1531 (Zwicker, Lopez, Mukherji/Kean, Singer, Pou) – Revises law concerning reciprocity for out-of-State professional and occupational licenses.
• A2178 (Schaer, Calabrese, Wimberly/Sarlo) – Permits conduct of raffles at large sporting venues.
• A2189 (Lampitt, Downey, Danielsen/Ruiz, Corrado) – Requires school districts to include instruction on consequences of distributing and soliciting sexually explicit images through electronic means as part of New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education.
• A2193 (Jones, Benson, Lampitt/Diegnan, Ruiz) – Directs State of Board of Education to authorize computer science endorsement to instructional certificate.
• A2366 (Vainieri Huttle, Mukherji, Benson/Weinberg, Stack) – Requires DOH to develop New Jersey Report Card of Hospital Maternity Care.
• A3861 (Quijano, DeAngelo, Giblin/Vitale, Gopal) – Concerns unemployment compensation and labor disputes.
• A4169 (Pintor Marin, Mukherji, Lampitt/Stack) – Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019.
• A4170 (Taliaferro, Carter, Caputo/Sweeney) – Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019.
• A4210 (Armato, Freiman, Jasey/Codey, Oroho) – Appropriates $15,294,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects.
• A4211 (Reynolds-Jackson, Chiaravalloti, Andrzejczak/Greenstein, Bateman) – Appropriates $9.703 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects.
• A4228 (Murphy, Conaway, Space/Singleton) – Requires SHBP and SEHBP to establish and contract for Medicare Primary Assignment and Audit Program ensuring that all persons in SHBP and SEHBP eligible for Medicare as primary provider.
• A4255 (Andrzejczak, Land, Mazzeo/Van Drew) – FY2019 supplemental appropriation of $1.2 million to Shellfish and Marine Fisheries Management for Bureau of Marine Fisheries in DEP.
• S430 (Pou, Oroho/Giblin) – Concerns certain real estate licenses.
• S647 (Beach, Cruz-Perez/Jones, Lampitt, Barclay, Taliaferro) – Permits registered voters to receive mail-in ballots automatically for all elections under certain conditions.
• S847 (Turner, Diegnan/Jasey, Murphy) – Requires school districts to provide daily recess period for students in grade kindergarten through 5; permits denial of recess for violation of code of student conduct but student must be provided restorative justice activities.
• S1247 (Rice, Kean/Greenwald, Mukherji) – Authorizes certain local government utilities to impose additional connection fees; requires certain new credits and reductions for these fees.
• S2645 (Singleton/Pinkin, McKeon, Reynolds-Jackson, Murphy) – Makes various changes to New Jersey Infrastructure Bank's enabling act.
• S2763 (Scutari/Carter, Kennedy) – Revises special charter for City of Plainfield.

Governor Murphy photo