Regional Career Development and Citizenship Curriculum
The NNJCF, in partnership with the North Jersey Education Consortium, educators from local school districts, municipal administrators, and Farleigh Dickinson University, is planning a pre-K-12 regional curriculum in career development and citizenship. This collaborative effort using joint resources and cost sharing, would include the five-district implementation of the career/citizenship curriculum summer programs, student forums, corporate internships, and trips to New York, Trenton and beyond. The intent is to bring young people into adulthood not only as academic students, but as creative participants in community building, as informed, active, and motivated American citizens.
Regional Student Arts Council
NNJCF envisions the creation of a student arts council with student body representatives from multiple districts that would meet on a regular basis to plan and execute regional public arts projects, art shows, music festivals, and plays and poetry readings. Local non-profit arts organizations like bergenPAC and Arts Horizons serve as mentors and, along with Farleigh Dickinson University, provide a venue for various kinds of performances.
Regional Autism School
Plans are being made to start a school serving special needs students in the NNJCF five-town region.
Fact Highlight
Services for 2,755 students – the neediest autistic students, whose bills exceeded $40,000 each – cost taxpayers $170 million a year. Sending a single child to a separate school for the disabled can cost over $100,000 per year. “While the New Jersey School Boards Association acknowledged that a small group of students with the most severe disabilities are best served in out-of-district programs, the researchers urged districts to expand shared services and in-district classes.
