| 6:23A-1.1
et seq ., effective on January 26, 2001, implement the EFCFA
provisions. The DOE argues that
at this time, all requests for temporary or permanent facilities must
be made and reviewed under the standards
and procedures of the EFCFA and its
implementing regulations. If a district is unsatisfied with the results
of the review of its EFCFA application,
it can appeal that determination. To the extent that there is
currently any dispute by a district over facilities funding, the matter
is not properly before the OAL at
this time. In the interim, to the extent that districts require temporary
facilities to fulfill their Abbott
commitments until permanent facilities can be constructed
or renovated, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ("EDA")
is in the process of procuring temporary
modular classroom units to ensure that all students eligible
can be served in full-day, full-year preschool by September 2001.15
Regarding
Elizabeth's
facilities complaints, the Department contends that the district failed
to advise it of the specific facilities
to be used by the district and this failure delayed the
issuance of the decision on Elizabeth's plan and application.
|
| Finally,
the DOE argues that where a district exhausted its available ECPA
funding in support of approved early
childhood programs, additional funding was
approved where need was demonstrated. To the extent that additional
funding is demonstrably necessary
above and beyond the supplemental funds already provided by
the Legislature for the 2000-2001 school year, the Commissioner will
seek those funds. The Department
recognizes that the Commissioner must ensure that Abbott schools
have the resources and additional funds necessary to implement preschool
education in the 2000-2001 school
year. Thus, it denies that it has imposed either an estimated
amount per pupil for the costs of early childhood education or that
it has capped funding by districts
at the existing level of ECPA funds. |
| The petitioners
respond that the DOE's insistence as to the required use of
EFCFA procedures amounts to nothing more than a bureaucratic detour
from the DOE's fulfillment of its
responsibility to assure funding of necessary temporary and permanent
facilities. Elizabeth urges that
the Department's position vis-à-vis its
facility requests is |
| 15See Sztuk
certification. |
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