Van Drew-Beach Bill Allowing Students Excused Absences on Veterans Day Clears Committee

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1st) and Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Chairman James Beach (D-6th) that would make absences from school on Veterans Day excused, in cases where a student is taking the day off to participate in a veterans’ activity, was approved by a Senate committee.
The bill was prompted by a case that took place last year in Upper Township, first reported in the Herald, in which a fifth grade student’s absence from school on Veterans Day, during which she volunteered to serve lunch to veterans at the Belleplain VFW, was marked unexcused.
The Upper Township School District superintendent stated at the time that while the school internally treated those kinds of absences as excused, they are considered unexcused for state attendance records because they are neither for an approved religious holiday nor the national Take Your Child To Work Day.
He also said that failing to comply with the state law could result in state funding being withheld, according to the story.
 “As a state, we should not be in the business of penalizing students who are actively working to help our country’s veterans. We should be encouraging students to volunteer for veterans’ organizations and to learn about the sacrifices made by these brave men and women. Any student who takes the initiative, especially at such a young age, to engage in these kinds of activities should be applauded. Certainly, on a day when the entire country is coming together to honor our American heroes, a student’s absence from school to participate in a veterans-related event should be excused,” stated Van Drew in a release.
“Any student who wishes to visit veterans at a local hospital, serve meals or engage in a variety of worthy activities on behalf of our veterans should be commended. This bill not only will ensure that an absence from school for this kind of work is excused, but will hopefully also incentivize more students to become engaged in helping veterans within the community,” stated Beach (D-Camden).
The bill (S2731) provides that any student of a public school who is absent from school on Nov. 11, Veterans Day, attending a ceremony honoring a veteran or a member of the U.S. armed forces or the New Jersey National Guard returning from overseas deployments, or assisting a veteran at a hospital, food shelter, or any similar facility, will have the absence recorded by the school district as an excused absence upon providing documentation of participation in the activity to the school district.
The absence will be recorded as an excused absence on the pupil’s attendance record or on that of any group or class of which he or she is a member, and any transcript, application, employment form, or any similar form on which information concerning a pupil’s attendance record is requested will show only absences other than excused absences authorized under the bill.
The Senate Education Committee approved the bill by a vote of 5-0. It next heads to the full Senate for a vote.