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New Jersey in the classroom — school board news

Friday, November 13, 2026

We bring transparency to school decisions nationwide by tracking school board meetings, district documents, and public data. We use AI tools, rigorously evaluated for accuracy, to search for risks.

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The policy desk

What’s moving in phones

The debate over phones, screens and the school day.

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The policy desk

What’s moving in AI

How artificial intelligence is changing classrooms and school rules.

In the reporting
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The policy desk

What’s moving in student voice

Students speaking up, organizing and helping shape their schools.

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The news desk

Latest New Jersey stories

Trenton Public School District

185 seniors were denied graduation, and most of those who graduated cleared the state requirement by appeal rather than by passing the test

Preliminary 2026 cohort data presented on September 28, 2026 records 185 students denied graduation from a twelfth-grade class of 794. Of those who did graduate, the numbers passing the state test directly were far smaller than the numbers cleared through the portfolio appeals process: at Trenton Central High School 261 in English and 105 in mathematics passed the test against 211 and 329 through appeals, and at Capital City High School 107 and 106 came through appeals. Separately, 2026 eleventh-grade results reported in August put graduation readiness at 38 percent in English and 28.4 percent in mathematics, and the district was told by the state that the results it received contained errors.

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Trenton Public School District

Trenton failed the state's accountability review on instruction and must file a district improvement plan by November 7

At the September 28, 2026 meeting the superintendent told the board the district's results from the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum review: 65 percent in instruction and programme, 95 percent in fiscal management, 100 percent in governance, 98 percent in operations and 81 percent in personnel. Because one area fell below the 80 percent threshold, state rules require the district to write a district improvement plan addressing the non-compliant indicators, and the superintendent gave the submission deadline as November 7. Committee chairs referred to it again later the same evening. This is the only place the result appears: no posted agenda, minutes or packet in the year records it, and the district's own accountability page carries nothing newer than 2016-17.

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Old Bridge Township Public Schools

AI accounts for high school students, and AI rules into every handbook

From September 2026 Old Bridge High School students have accounts on MagicSchool, an AI platform for schools, and the district plans to add AI language to the elementary, middle and high school student handbooks. Students reach the tools through Clever with a join code their teacher provides, after teacher and student training. Student activity rooms stay visible to district administrators, the platform's built-in alerts and filtering are used to flag problems, and AI characters that act like people are restricted to staff accounts. The district says it will next pick selected elementary and middle school programmes to use MagicSchool.

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Closer to home

News from neighboring states

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