Public Policy Successes

The Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey supported legislation that:

• Created the New Jersey Special Education & Traumatic Brain Injury Task Force
• Requires all automobile passengers to wear seatbelts
• Increased funding to the Senior Citizen and Disabled Resident Transportation Program
• Requires the New Jersey Department of Children & Families to provide information on home visitation resources and shaken baby syndrome to parents of newborn infants
• Designated the month of March of each year as “Brain Injury Awareness Month”
• Requires all children under 17 wear helmets when rollerblading, rollerskating or skateboarding
• Upgraded the bicycle helmet law to require youth under age 17 to wear a properly-fitted helmet
• Placed New Jersey in the unique position to be the first state to pass a mandatory bicycle helmet law for children under 14
• Reduced the blood alcohol level at which a person is considered to be guilty of drunk driving from 0.10% to 0.08% blood alcohol content
• Effectively eliminated “pocket bikes” from public roadways
• Appropriated a $3.6 million state and federal appropriation to add 50 slots to the Traumatic Brain Injury Medicaid Waiver for use during the 2004-2005 fiscal year
• Appropriated an additional $3.6 million in state and federal funds to add another 50 slots to the Waiver program.
• Maintained funding for the aforementioned Waiver slots in each state budget since the slots were added
• Established an 11-member New Jersey State Commission on Brain Injury Research
• Created a fund dedicated to helping address the unique needs of people with traumatic brain injury and to raising awareness of brain injury
• Reauthorized the Traumatic Brain Injury Act.