New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Announces Additional Funds for Feasibility Study Grants

P.L. 2021 c. 402 established a grant program within the Department of Community Affairs that would reimburse districts for eligible costs associated with conducting a feasibility study that supports the State’s initiative to form or expand regional school districts. The School Regionalization Efficiency Program (SREP) is open to any public board of education as well as any governing body that either does not have a board of education, is part of a consolidated school district, or is a constituent district of a limited purpose or all-purpose regional district. SREP also allows for an entity who prepared a feasibility study within (2) years prior to the enactment of P.L. 2021 c. 402 on January 18, 2022, and for which no reimbursement has been provided, to apply for reimbursement.

For FY 2024, all grant applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. EST on April 15, 2024 for the application to be eligible for grant funding. In order to apply, a school district or municipality will first need to determine who it wishes to partner with for the study and each will need to pass a resolution to that effect.

Since the creation of the grant program in 2022, Porzio has been instrumental in assisting numerous local school districts with the grant application process and in the creation of the feasibility studies as well. Porzio’s vast experience with the regionalization process and feasibility studies is second to none; Porzio’s professionals and the experts with whom Porzio works have successfully litigated the only three regional district dissolutions in State history, have actively contributed to or handled nearly every major development in this area of the law in the last 30 years, and have prepared nearly 50 feasibility studies.

Please contact Vito A. Gagliardi, Jr. or Kerri A. Wright if you have any questions about this process.