Now that we have passed the Senate bill filing deadline and are quickly approaching the House deadline, over 100 K12 education bills have been filed this session in the NC General Assembly. As the legislative session continues, we will track bills that align with our Top Education Issues and highlight several policy areas each week.
- 20 bills filed concerning school finance. H785, a bipartisan bill filed this week, would study funding flexibility for local school boards. This is the third bill this session that has focused on funding flexibility.
- 21 bills filed concerning teacher compensation and working conditions. H767 is another bipartisan bill filed this week that would establish a joint legislative study commission on market rate compensation for teachers.
- 37 bills filed concerning child well-being. Filed this week, H674 would loosen many restrictions on gun ownership and access. One component of the bill would authorize public and nonpublic school employees to store firearms and other “defensive devices” in biometric safes at their schools.
- 13 bills filed concerning assessment and accountability. Among them is H773 which was filed this week. It would change both the grading scale and calculations of grades in an effort to more accurately reflect student performance.
- 16 bills filed concerning student learning. Also this week, H596 was filed, which would shift the power and process for recommending academic standards to a committee with membership appointed primarily by the General Assembly.
Child well-being- While approaches differ, many bills aim to improve the mental and physical health of our students, including through staffing health positions in our schools. H464 (Healthy Students- A Nurse in Every School) and its Senate companion, S360, would appropriate funds to ensure all schools have nurses. Other legislation– like S636 (School Psychologist Omnibus) and its House companion, H588– seeks to address both the number and quality of mental health professionals in schools with increased compensation for school psychologists, a grant program for districts seeking to hire additional positions, and an internship program. H710 (Mental Health Crisis Unit Pilot for LSAUs) is another bipartisan bill, which would establish a program providing funds to participating districts to provide resources to students and staff, including for rapid response to mental health emergencies.
Following the Governor’s proposed budget, which included a provision for universal free breakfast, a number of other bills have been proposed to address the need for access to food at school. These include H774 (School Breakfast for All) and H713 (Universal Free Breakfast and Lunch), which goes a step further in providing breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost.
Also of note are bills filed this week that aim to further restrict curriculum and content for students, including H635 (Promoting Wholesome Content for Students) which enacts requirements for selecting school library books and allows librarians to be criminally prosecuted on charges that the books in their libraries are “harmful to minors.” H595 (Parental Rights for Curriculum and Books) places further restrictions on the standard course of study in health education, also enacts requirements for school library books, and goes a step further in restricting access to materials in public libraries to minors.
At the federal level, the most recent round of education cuts has canceled stabilization grants for some school districts. Superintendent Mo Green and the State Board of Education have issued a joint statement outlining the harmful impacts of this decision, urging Secretary Linda McMahon to reconsider. These grants, which were being used for school construction projects in Robeson, Richmond, Halifax, and Lenoir counties, total about $17 million. The loss of these funds would be devastating to students, who need and deserve access to safe learning environments.
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