Senate Commerce Committee Statement — Senate Committee Substitute for Senate, No. 1635 (October 10, 2024)

Summary

Senate Commerce Committee statement to Senate Committee Substitute for Senate, No. 1635, State of New Jersey, dated October 10, 2024. The committee reports favorably the Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 1635, which amends current law by creating licensure for mortuary and embalming science and licensure for mortuary science, both overseen by the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey. The statement says a practitioner of mortuary science would solely provide funeral directing services, and that the updates include not requiring a person to be a resident of New Jersey and lowering the age to eighteen to qualify. It says references to “trainees” are changed to “interns” and “school of mortuary science” to “program of funeral service education.”

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     SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

                    STATEMENT TO

 SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
                  SENATE, No. 1635

 STATE OF NEW JERSEY
                    DATED: OCTOBER 10, 2024

    The Senate Commerce Committee reports favorably the Senate
Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 1635.
    This bill amends current law by creating licensure for mortuary
and embalming science and licensure for mortuary science. Both
types of licensee would be overseen by the State Board of Mortuary
Science of New Jersey. Under the bill, a practitioner of mortuary and
embalming science would provide services under what is currently
recognized as mortuary science. The bill provides that a practitioner
of mortuary science would solely provide funeral directing services.
    The education, including continuing education, and examination
requirements, as well as other provisions of the law, are modified to
incorporate this update to the mortuary science licensure to be
regulated by the board. This also includes updates to qualifications for
licensure, including by not requiring a person to be a resident of New
Jersey and lowering the age to eighteen to qualify. However, for a
person to be licensed as what is now known as a practitioner of
mortuary and embalming science, the requirement remains that that
class of licensure still be proficient in both funeral directing and
embalming. Additionally, updates are made to certain terminology,
including references to “trainees” changed to “interns” and “school of
mortuary science” to “program of funeral service education.”
    The funeral directing industry is regulated, in large part, by the
“Mortuary Science Act.” Prior to the enactment of that law, the
licensing board was directed to issue three separate licenses: one for
embalming, one for funeral directing, and a third for both embalming
and funeral directing. The 1952 law consolidated the three licenses
into one, issuing thereafter a license for a practitioner of mortuary
science, who were to be proficient in both embalming and funeral
directing.
    For religious, cultural, environmental, and philosophical reasons,
an increasing number of funerals center around disposition without
embalming. This bill, by allowing funeral services not involving
embalming to be provided by persons licensed by the board who are
not embalmers, would facilitate the response by the funeral services
industry to New Jersey’s diverse population and to societal changes.


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