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

Summary

A Senate Commerce Committee statement to the Senate on the Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 1635, State of New Jersey, dated October 10, 2024, reporting it favorably. The bill creates licensure for mortuary and embalming science and separate licensure for mortuary science, both of which would be overseen by the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey; a practitioner of mortuary science would solely provide funeral directing services. It drops the New Jersey residency requirement, lowers the qualifying age to eighteen and renames "trainees" as "interns." The statement says the 1952 law consolidated three licenses into one and that an increasing number of funerals center on disposition without embalming.

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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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