Senate Education Committee Approves K-12 Bills As Budget Talks Stall
As progress on a new state budget appeared to stall this week, the Senate Education/Higher Education Committee turned its attention to handling two K-12 policy bills: H832 (Education Omnibus) and H378 Various Ed Law//Tax Acct/NIL Changes. Both bills pull together numerous public-school proposals, including many from the House and Senate budget bills.House Bill 832 (Education Omnibus) was approved to include the following:
- Auto Enrollment Advanced LEA Courses - Expands automatic enrollment in advanced courses to English Language Arts (S507).
- School Contracted Health Services - Allows parent choice in nursing services for children with disabilities while in school, if certain conditions are met. (S77)
- Charter Schools Review Board Amendments - Grants additional power to the Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB), including requiring its approval of all charter school rules and policies prior to SBE approval. (Senate and House Budgets Section 7.25)
- DPI Financial Data Reporting Platform - Requires DPI to provide a charter school access to any required financial data reporting platforms during the charter schools' first year of operation at no cost to the school. (House Budget, Section 7.60)
- CEP Program - Provides that the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program provides students with a healthy, cost-free breakfast and lunch can operate where funds are available each year and requires participating schools to make breakfast consumption available in the classroom. (House Budget, Section 7.32)
- Residency Licenses For Nonpublic EC Teachers - Makes nonpublic schools, including those that provide services for students with extraordinary costs attributable to providing the special education services on the student's IEP, eligible to request a residency license for their teachers. (House Budget, Section 7.43)
- Converting Limited Licenses - Requires the SBE to convert a limited license to a Continuing Professional License (CPL) if the teacher has available EVAAS growth data and a positive growth score for two of the three most recent years for which growth scores are available. (S508)
- Technical Adjustment To Administrative Licensure Requirements – Clarifies that the portfolio requirement for an administrator license is limited to those seeking licensure as a principal. (Senate and House Budgets, Sec. 7.11)
- Advanced Teaching Roles – Grants a public school unit participating in the Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) in the 2024-2025 school year authorization to exceed the maximum class size requirements for kindergarten through third grade for the 2025-2026 school year. (Senate Budget, 7.29)
- Central Office Salaries - Requires local boards of education to publish total compensation and position information for central office employees on their websites. (H56)
- Laboratory Schools - Establishes standards for agreements between the University Of North Carolina System schools and Local School Administrative Units for the operation and maintenance of laboratory schools. (Senate and House Budgets, Sec. 8.6)
- Renewal School System (RSS) Modifications - Moves the review of the RSS by the SBE to the end of the 2028-2029 school year and every 5 years thereafter. The SBE could terminate the RSS prior to the end of the 2028-2029 school year if RSS fails to meet fiscal management standards or violates state or federal law.
- School Safety Grants - Adds additional training for students and school employees as eligible services for school safety grants established by the 2023 Appropriations Act. (original content of H832)
- School Safety Grant Reversions - Provides that funds appropriated for the School Safety Grants Program would not revert until June 30, 2027. (Senate and House Budgets, Sec. 20.5)
- SparkNC Extension - This section extends the SparkNC Program through the 2031-2033 fiscal biennium and opens the program to all PSUs. Funds allocated would remain available until the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year. (Senate Budget, Sec. 7.33)
- Various Education Report Changes – Makes changes to due dates of various reports required of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction or the State Board of Education, and changes names and/or components required for some reports. (Senate and House Budgets, Sec. 7.12)
A legislative staff summary for H832 can be found here.
H378: Various Ed Law//Tax Acct/NIL Changes. was also approved by the Senate Education/Higher Education Committee.H378 in its original form requires community colleges to provide parents with education records of certain minor students and require those students to acknowledge parental access to their records. The revised bill includes language from the following Senate bills:
- Fiscal Responsibility and K-20 Tech Planning - Requires all PSUs to evaluate long-term costs when buying new technology. Public school units would also be required to report on the break/fix rate of school technology devices. (S449).
- Expand Academic Trans. Pathways for Sophomore HS - Would remove the limitations on the types of career and technical education pathways available for sophomore high school students. (S223).
- Authorize Agency NIL Contracts - Allows student athletes to enter contracts with agents for representation related to negotiating contracts for the use of the athlete's name, image, and likeness. (S229).