The pace for moving legislation at the General Assembly quickened this week, as both the House and Senate’s education committees met and approved legislation affecting public schools.

The House K-12 Education Committee met on Tuesday and approved the following:

• H4, Sam’s Law – Requires public school units (PSUs) to develop Seizure Action Plans for students with a diagnosed seizure disorder.
• H106, Revive High-Need Retired Teachers Program – See separate article for summary.
• H149, School Financial Flexibility Pilot Program – Creates a pilot program to allow financial and hiring flexibility for certain local school administrative units (LEAs), with the eligibility requirements qualifying only the Mooresville Graded School District.
• H397, Use of Epinephrine Nasal Spray in Schools – Expands the definition of epinephrine auto-injectors to epinephrine delivery systems in order to include nasal sprays in addition to auto-injectors for the treatment of asthma or anaphylactic reactions in schools. Also makes the new definition  applicable to certain entities and organizations other than schools.

 The Senate Education/Higher Education Committee met on Wednesday and approved the following:

• S229, Authorize NIL Contracts – Authorizes Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) agency contracts and exempts certain NIL contracts from public records requirements.
• S506, ATR Salary Sups. and Grant Increases – Provides $16.2 M in 2025-26 and $20.1 M in 2026-27 to increase Advanced Teaching Role (ATR) grants to be awarded to public school units. Also increases program administration funding by $1 M in next school year for facilitating the ATR program.
• S507, Auto Enrollment in Advanced ELA Courses – Expands the advanced courses to be offered by local boards of education when practicable to include English Language Arts (ELA) courses under GS 115C-81.36. Makes conforming changes including automatic enrollment in advanced learning opportunities for the next school year when a student scores at the highest level on the corresponding end-of-grade test. Specifies that the submission date for the annual report submitted by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to specified NCGA committees is Dec. 15, 2025, and requires DPI to include data on socioeconomic status collected for the current school year, as described. Applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.

These K-12 bills in both chambers now move on for additional debate by other committees before being considered on the floor of their originating chamber.