LEGISLATIVE ALERTS  

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       Check this page regularly for alerts about legislation that will affect you and your ESL and bilingual students. Alerts will first be sent to the e-mail list and then linked to this page. Below are links for contacting your legislators.

ACTION ALERT!

     The NJ State Board will consider amendments to the state’s bilingual education regulations at its next meeting, rescheduled to Dec. 5. The proposals are part of Commissioner Chris Cerf’s plans to drastically “deregulate” NJ’s public education system by revising or repealing state education code. The proposed bilingual amendments “would no longer require school districts to submit to the Department for approval a three-year plan detailing how they intend to provide language assistance services to LEP students.” Districts would be required to prepare a plan to “raise LEP student achievement,” but the Department would no longer review and approve those plans or monitor their implementation separately.

     PLEASE write a letter to State Board of Education members and let them know how this "deregulation" will harm services for ELLS! 

Click here for a sample letter.

ACTION ALERT!

Adult Education Funding Alert!

Click on the ACTION ALERT link to urge your members of Congress to include adult education funding in the stimulus package

2010 Legislative Conference Handouts and Presentations

SRA Update 4/7/09 - Text-Version

Public Testimony to the New Jersey State Board of Education on SRA February 20, 2008

 Public Testimony to the New Jersey State Board of Education February 21, 2007

Petitions

Below are petitions that you can send to your legislators

• In-state tuition: to your NJ Legislators & Senator Shirley Turner
  Petition for In-State Tuition
• Dream Act: to your Federal Representatives
  Petition for the Dream Act
• English as a Common Language: to your Federal Representatives
  Petition against English as the Official Language
• Petition re: NCLB

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• Dream Act Information      (Get Adobe Reader)
• Write to your Legislator
• Sunset of New Jersey Bilingual Education Administration Code

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Government Websites

• New Jersey Legislature
  Click on Find your Legislator under Members on the left side of the page http://www.njleg.state.nj.us
• State of New Jersey
  Official web site http://www.state.nj.us
• New Jersey Department of Education
  News, programs, data, NCLB and other information http://www.state.nj.us/education
• New Jersey Department of Education - Bilingual Education information
  http://www.state.nj.us/njded/bilingual
• New Jersey Department of Education Bilingual Education three-year plan
  http://www.state.nj.us/njded/bilingual/resources/els3year.doc
• No Child Left Behind: New Jersey
  Chief State School Officer, State Education Agency, State Education Committee Leaders, Secretary's Regional Representative, and an evaluation of individual districts http://www.nclb.gov/next/where/newjersey.html
• U.S. Senate Contact site
  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
• U.S. House Contact site
  http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.html
• U.S. Department of Education
  News, resources, policies, research, priorities, and other information http://www.ed.gov/index.jsp
• NCELA
  National Clearinghouse for English Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs http://www.ed.gov/offices/OBEMLA
• OELA
  The Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students http://www.ed.gov/offices/OBEMLA
• No Child Left Behind
  Official website – find answers to questions about the NCLB law http://www.nclb.gov

Other Advocacy Websites

• TESOL - U.S. Action Advocacy Center
  http://capwiz.com/tesol
• National Immigration Law Center
  Information on the DREAM Act and In-state Tuition http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/DREAM/index.htm
• New Jersey Immigration Policy Network
  http://www.njipn.org
  NJIPN Report on the challenge of integrating immigrants in New Jersey: Summary   Full Report
• The New Jersey Immigrant Policy Portal - http://usdiversitydynamics.com/nj/index.html
   

If you have any questions, you can contact us by sending e-mail to: webmaster@njtesol-njbe.org.