Today the New Jersey State Senate passed Bill 3330, which mandates that Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan provide public schools with material to  incorporate instruction about grief for students grades 8-12. The bill is sponsored by Senators Jon Bramnick and Joe Cryan. It passed 36-0.

Here is the bill summary:

This bill requires each school district to include instruction on grief in an appropriate place in the curriculum of students in grades eight through 12 as part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. The instruction is to include information on the physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms of grief; coping mechanisms and techniques for handling grief and loss; and resources available to students, including in-school support, mental health crisis support, and individual and group therapy. Under the bill, the Commissioner of Education is required to  provide school districts with age-appropriate sample learning activities and resources designed to implement the requirement to include instruction on grief in the public school curriculum.

Today the Senate unanimously passed the Bramnick/Cryan bill that requires some teaching of Grief and Loss in high schools health classes. Ava Quesada who lost her brother pressed the “yes” button at my desk. pic.twitter.com/xF88dQG59L

— Jon Bramnick (@JonBramnick) May 22, 2023