School District Accountability Act

On March 15, 2007, the state's School District Accountability Act was signed into law. This multi-faceted legislation impacts school boards in a variety of ways and one key area is board-member training. NJSBA has been selected, by the state, as the designated training provider for all of the mandated courses.

Provisions of the law:

• Establish new requirements and approval processes for school board and staff travel.


• Expand existing training required for newly elected and new school board members.


• Establish training requirements for first-term board members during their second and third years in office and for re-elected and re-appointed board members.


• Set new processes that must be followed to renew or alter administrators contracts.


• Create requirements for reporting and publicly posting administrators compensation.


• Require plain language summaries of school budgets.


• Extend the state commissioner of education's authority to intervene in school district business operations.

All board members must attend the New Board Member Orientation Conference in their first year of service. In addition, other board members must attend training in subsequent years if they fall into one of the following categories:

• 1st Term, 2nd year of service – Governance I: NJQSAC
• 1st Term, 3rd year of service – Governance II: School Finance
• Reelected/Reappointed Board Members in the first year of any succeeding term– Advanced Training: Legal Update

Training Report Form

The School District Accountability Act requires board members to report back to their districts after they have attended training or educational programs. NJSBA has developed an easy-to-complete form for members to comply with the regulations.

The form provides space to explain what the training involved and where and when it was held, as well as briefly discuss the educational benefits of the session, so that information can be shared with colleagues.

Download the Board Report Form

For more information, please contact the Call Center at (609) 278-5260.