13:1F-21. Definitions relative to the "School Integrated Pest Management Act"

3. As used in this act:

"Charter school" means a school established pursuant to P.L.1995, c.426 (C.18A:36A-1 et seq.).

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection.

"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.

"Integrated pest management coordinator" or "coordinator" means an individual who is knowledgeable about integrated pest management systems and has been designated by a local school board, the board of trustees of a charter school, or the principal or chief administrator of a private school, as appropriate, as the integrated pest management coordinator pursuant to section 5 of this act.

"Low Impact Pesticide" means any pesticide or pesticidal active ingredient alone, or in combination with inert ingredients, that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has determined is not of a character necessary to be regulated pursuant to the "Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act," 7 U.S.C. s.136 et seq. and that has been exempted from the registration and reporting requirements adopted pursuant to that act; any gel; paste; bait; antimicrobial agent such as a disinfectant used as a cleaning product; boric acid; disodium octoborate tetrahydrate; silica gels; diatomaceous earth; microbe-based insecticides such as bacillus thuringiensis; botanical insecticides, not including synthetic pyrethroids, without toxic synergists; and biological, living control agents.

"Pesticide" means any substance or mixture of substances labeled, designed, intended for or capable of use in preventing, destroying, repelling, sterilizing or mitigating any insects, rodents, nematodes, predatory animals, fungi, weeds and other forms of plant or animal life or viruses, except viruses on or in living man or other animals. "Pesticide" shall also include any substance or mixture of substances labeled, designed or intended for use as a defoliant, desiccant or plant regulator.

"School" means any public or private school as defined in N.J.S.18A:1-1.

"School integrated pest management policy" means a managed pest control policy that eliminates or mitigates economic, health, and aesthetic damage caused by pests in schools; that delivers effective pest management, reduces the volume of pesticides used to minimize the potential hazards posed by pesticides to human health and the environment in schools; that uses integrated methods, site or pest inspections, pest population monitoring, an evaluation of the need for pest control, and one or more pest control methods, including sanitation, structural repair, mechanical and biological controls, other nonchemical methods, and when nonchemical options are ineffective or unreasonable, allows the use of a pesticide, with a preference toward first considering the use of a low impact pesticide for schools.

"School pest emergency" means an urgent need to mitigate or eliminate a pest that threatens the health or safety of a student or staff member.

"School property" means any area inside and outside of the school buildings controlled, managed, or owned by the school or school district.

"Staff member" means an employee of a school or school district, including administrators, teachers, and other persons regularly employed by a school or school district, but shall not include an employee hired by a school, school district or the State to apply a pesticide or a person assisting in the application of a pesticide.

"Universal notification" means notice provided by a local school board, a board of trustees of a charter school, or the principal or chief administrator of a private school, as appropriate, to all parents or guardians of children attending a school, and staff members of a school or school district.

L.2002,c.117,s.3.