Official Site of The State of New Jersey

N.J.S.A. 18A:40-12.9 requires annual asthma education opportunities for teaching staff. Additional resources can be found on the Asthma Community Network website.

Federal Occupational Safety and Health regulations require annual in-service training for district school staff. N.J.A.C. 8:61-2 (New Jersey Department of Health regulation) requires public and nonpublic schools and day care facilities to establish policies and procedures for handling blood and bodily fluids, and policies and procedures for post-exposure management. Schools and day care facilities are required to provide training and appropriate supplies for all school personnel.

School nurses must—in consultation with the board of education— designate and train school employees who volunteer to administer epinephrine when the school nurse is not physically present at the scene.

School Policy for the Emergency Administration of Ephinephrine

Under PLC 2015, Chapter 13 the policy developed by a board of education or chief school administrator of a nonpublic school shall:

1. Permit the school nurse or trained designee to administer epinephrine via a pre-filled auto-injector mechanism to any pupil when the nurse or designee in good faith believes that the pupil is having an anaphylactic reaction
2. Require each public and nonpublic school to maintain in a secure but unlocked and easily accessible location a supply of epinephrine auto-injectors that is prescribed under a standing protocol from a licensed physician, and is accessible to the school nurse and trained designees for administration to a pupil having an anaphylactic reaction.

Notes:

• The law does not prescribe how the new requirements are to be implemented in many cases. For example, while the new provision in the law allows a school nurse and trained designees to administer the epinephrine, it is up to the nonpublic school to determine how this training will occur.
• The nonpublic schools will need to develop their own policies to ensure that they adhere to the law's requirements. See 18A:40-12.5 Section 1a-e for requirements for students with known potential need for administration of epinephrine for anaphylaxis.

N.J.S.A. 18A:40-42 requires public schools to annually distribute a fact sheet about vaccination against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) to parents or guardians of students in grade seven. The Commissioner of Education also shall make the educational fact sheet available to private schools educating students in grades seven through 12. Such schools are encouraged, but not required, to distribute the fact sheet to parents or guardians of students at the school. The fact sheet is available on the New Jersey Department of Health's (NJDOH) Human Papillomavirus webpage.

Administrators of all New Jersey public and nonpublic schools, including child care, preschool, Head Start, and K–12, are responsible for ensuring that all students are in compliance with N.J.A.C. 8:57-4, Immunization of Pupils in School regulations.

Additional information is available on the Communicable Disease Prevention and Reporting webpage and the NJDOH Immunization Requirements webpage.

Influenza Vaccine

New Jersey requires all children six months through 59 months of age attending any licensed child care center or preschool facility annually receive at least one dose of influenza vaccine between September 1 and December 31 of each year. There is no grace period for unvaccinated children. Students who have not received the influenza vaccine by December 31 must be excluded from the child care/preschool facility for the duration of influenza season (through March 31), until they receive at least one dose of the influenza vaccine, or until they turn 60 months of age.

N.J.S.A. 18A:40-41.3 requires each school district, charter school, and nonpublic school that participates in interscholastic athletics have a policy concerning the prevention and treatment of sports-related concussions and other head injuries among student athletes. 

Model Policy and Guidance for Districts on the Prevention and Treatment of Sports-Related Head Injuries and Concussions (PDF)

Refer to the Information for Student Athletes webpage for student athlete forms and the most current information on student athlete requirements.

The following forms/documents are required in all interscholastic or intramural athletic participation packages:

• Preparticipation Physical Evaluation Form (PPE)
• Health History Update Questionnaire (only if the PPE was completed 90 days or more prior to the first practice session of the athletic season)
• Sudden Cardiac Death in Young Athletes Pamphlet
• Student-athlete and parent/guardian certification and sign-off Sheet
• Sports-Related Concussion and Head Injury Fact Sheet and Parent/Guardian Acknowledgement Form

The nonpublic school does not need to have a school physician sign the PPE form because there is no statutory requirement that nonpublic schools employ a school physician.

For current requirements on tuberculosis screening in schools, refer to the Tuberculosis Control Program (NJDOH) webpage.