New Jersey's numbers are real, but so are the districts behind them.
Below are in-depth looks at individual districts — what they've lost, what district policy actually says, and what it would take to bring it back.
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Montclair
Montclair ranks in the state's top 50 and outperforms most districts on reading scores. It had five school librarians in 2019. Today it has none — every position was eliminated during a 2025–26 budget crisis, and in May 2026 the district quietly rewrote its own policy to remove the requirement for a certified librarian altogether.