Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Commissioner Decisions: Controversies and Disputes
Commissioner decisions issued prior to 1992 are published in a series of volumes entitled New Jersey School Law Decisions. Decisions issued from 1992 through July 10, 1997 are published in the New Jersey Administrative Reports (N.J.A.R.2d). The present site offers decisions issued from July 1, 1997 to date, with the exception of settlements, withdrawals, interim proceedings and letter decisions which have not been the subject of decisions on appeal. Additionally, decisions issued prior to July 1, 1997 but previously unpublished, are also included where they became the subject of State Board decisions after January 1, 1997.
Please note that, for years prior to 2004, this site includes only the Commissioner's decision, which in most cases represents the adoption, rejection or modification of an initial decision of the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). While case synopses including a summary of the OAL decision precede each Commissioner decision as a convenience, readers wishing to access the actual OAL decision are referred to the Rutgers University Law School - Administrative Law Decisions page, where OAL decisions are posted; a link to this site (“OAL”) is provided in the navigation bar. In some cases, the Commissioner's decision is a review of a penalty determination of the School Ethics Commission; in these instances, the underlying Ethics decision may be also accessed through a link (“School Ethics”) in the navigation bar.
Beginning in 2004, underlying OAL and School Ethics Commission decisions are provided, when available, either in the caption list or within the Commissioner Decision document. Although any posted links are accurate as of the time of posting, a subsequent change in URL at the Rutgers website may cause a particular OAL decision link to cease functioning. Should this occur, the OAL decision can be accessed in the same manner as pre-2004 decisions, by using the "OAL" feature on the navigation bar on the left of each page.
Prior to enactment of P.L. 2008, c. 36 on July 7, 2008, Commissioner of Education decisions were appealable to the State Board of Education, except for decisions involving the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), which were final agency decisions appealable directly to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court. As of July 7, 2008, all Commissioner decisions are final agency decisions appealable to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court.
COMMISSIONER DECISIONS: APPEALS
On July 7, 2008, through enactment of P.L. 2008, c. 36, State Board of Examiner and School Ethics Commission decisions which had previously been appealable to the State Board of Education became appealable to the Commissioner of Education. In the listings below, these decisions are followed by the notation (APPEAL DECISION).
Select individual decision below:
The following list is in chronological order organized by year. If you know the name (or any part of the name) or decision number of the particular case you are looking for, and you also know the year in which it was issued, use the "Find" feature of the "Edit" menu to search the list for that particular year. In all other instances, decisions are most easily accessed through the "Search" feature on the navigation bar below.
The decisions are in Adobe PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or higher to view them. Be sure to read the instructions that come with the reader carefully for information on viewing and printing documents.