NJ Senator Diane Allen (R-7) introduced a bill (S-1760) that would recognize American Sign Language as a world language and require high schools to let students fulfill their foreign language graduation requirement by taking sign language courses, instead of spoken languages like Spanish or French. The bill was passed unanimously in the Senate and received in the Assembly in February of this year. It was reported favorably out of the Assembly Education Committee for Second Reading on May 11, 2015.
The bill does not require school districts to offer American Sign Language courses. New Jersey’s high school students are currently required to earn five world language credits—out of 120 total credits total—before they graduate. The bill, first introduced in 2010, made it as far as approval by the Senate Education Committee two years ago, but it did not advance further and died with the session. Twenty years ago, the New Jersey state Senate and Assembly passed a resolution urging school districts to count the study of American Sign Language as a foreign language credit. Some New Jersey districts already offer American Sign Language as an option for meeting the world language requirement.
