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New Jersey County Vo-tech School Districts

All 21 New Jersey counties operate a county vocational-technical school district. Each district runs one or more free public high schools offering career and technical education, and in many counties also runs highly selective specialized academies known as magnet high schools.

Program Type: Public high schools of choice operated by county vocational districts. Some are full-time four-year programs; others are half-day “shared-time” programs.

Current Status: Active and operating in all 21 counties for 2026-27

Tuition: $0 – Completely FREE. Once a student is admitted, the sending home district pays the tuition and provides transportation. There is no tuition or transportation cost to the family.

Legal Right to Apply: Under N.J.S.A. 18A:54-20.1, every student has the legal right to apply for admission to the county vocational-technical school in their county of residence. The right to apply is not a right to admission, because these schools admit students competitively. What the statute guarantees is what happens after acceptance: once a student has applied and been accepted, the home district must send the student and pay the tuition. Students from outside the county may be accepted only so far as facilities permit.

Who Can Apply:

  • Any eighth grader (occasionally a ninth grader) living in the county may apply for four-year full-time programs
  • Students in grades 10 and 11 may apply for shared-time programs
  • Admissions must provide equal educational opportunity without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, or economic status

Admission Process: Admission is competitive. Schools evaluate applicants on:

  • Grades
  • Standardized test scores
  • Attendance
  • Often essays, interviews, and portfolios or auditions

Requirements vary by school and program. At Bergen County Academies, for example, applicants apply through the district portal, and the Music AVPA program requires the standard application process plus a successful music audition.

Application Timing: Each county runs its own timeline, and applications are generally filed in the fall of eighth grade for entry the following September. Union County Vocational-Technical Schools has set December 14, 2026 as the deadline for the Class of 2031, and requires families to attend a virtual information session before applying. Morris County School of Technology’s academy application closes in early November. Bergen, Passaic, Camden, and Middlesex each publish their own dates. These deadlines move year to year, so confirm the current date on your county district’s admissions page rather than relying on last year’s.

Examples of County Schools and Academies:

  • Bergen County Academies (Hackensack)
  • High Technology High School (Monmouth County)
  • Union County Magnet High School
  • Middlesex County Magnet Schools
  • Morris County School of Technology

Program Scale:

  • Approximately 35,000 or more secondary students attend county vocational-technical high schools statewide, plus about 4,000 adults in career programs
  • Bergen County Academies alone enrolls about 1,131 students, drawn from 70 towns

Where to Start:

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