• 175 House bills and 148 Senate bills have been filed during the short session.
• Of those bills, about 20% are related to education.
• In total (including bills from the long session), about 130 education bills are currently eligible to be heard during the rest of the biennium.
• 2 bills passed into law during the first 30 days: one statewide and one local. Respectively, SB 508: 2023 Budget Tech/Other Corrections and HB 31: Rowan-Salisbury Board of Educ. Elections are now SL 2024-1 and S.L. 2024-2.

Note that the Senate Education/Higher Education and House Education – K-12 Committees have not yet met, and, to date, no meetings have been scheduled.

Read on to learn more about education bills, federal education report topics, statewide and national K-12 articles, and resources.

Bills Sent to the Senate from the House:
HB 988: Retirement Technical Corrections (Primary Sponsor: Representative Carson Smith, R-Pender)

• Makes conforming changes across TSERS, LGERS, Legislative Retirement System, and State Health Plan to ensure consistent reading of the statutes administered by the Department of State Treasurer.

HB 989: Retirement Service Purchase Rewrite Part III (Primary Sponsor: Representative Carson Smith, R-Pender)

• Last part of a multi-year effort to recodify and standardize the remaining service purchase types across all retirement systems (excluding military service purchases).

HB 1020: Retirement Admin. Changes Act of 2024 (Primary Sponsor: Representative Carson Smith, R-Pender)

• Makes minor administrative changes to the operation of the Retirement Systems and administering retirement benefits by expanding eligibility for participation in the 401(k) plan for part-time employees in accordance with SECURE Act 2.0.

Moving in the House:
HB 900 Substitute Certain CIHS Partners/Wake. (Primary Sponsors: Representatives Erin Paré, R-Wake; Sarah Crawford, D-Wake; Ya Liu, D-Wake; Maria Cervania, D-Wake)

Passed its first House committee and has one more committee to go until it can reach the House floor.

• Requires the State Board of Education to approve the substitute of a new partner higher education institution for the Wake Young Men’s and Women’s Leadership Academies, beginning as early as the 2024-2025 school year.
• Appropriates recurring funds to the Department of Instruction for the 2024-2025 fiscal year to cover a shortfall of tuition payments for Cooperative Innovative High Schools.

Read more about this bill on WRAL here.

May 20, 2024 Topics From the Weekly Report Include:

• The House Appropriations Committee is working on the budget process and released allocation amounts.
• The White House held a summit on the need to address chronic absenteeism and announced an initiative to provide $250 million in grants. To learn more, click here to read the White House fact sheet. The deadline for notice of intent to apply is June 6^th. To apply for grants, click here.
• The House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), held a hearing to examine the Health and Human Services budget. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra highlighted the proposed funding for upwards of 750,000 Head Start slots, increased wages for Head Start educators, and universal preschool for all four-year-olds. Chairwoman Foxx referred to the proposed document as a “tax and spend monstrosity,” frustrated that it overlooks issues such as fentanyl, the border, and child trafficking. Democrats focused their attention on the youth mental health crisis, the opioid epidemic, lowering drug costs, and protecting the reproductive rights of women. Click here to listen to the hearing.

Click here to read any of the above stories in full and explore other headlines from the federal education report.

Federal Grant Reminder:

This is a reminder about the upcoming submission deadline for the US Department of Energy’s 2024 Renew America’s Schools Prize, which will award $180 million to school districts across the country engaging in strategic partnerships to build capacity and implement energy upgrades at K-12 schools, lowering energy use and costs, improving indoor air quality, and fostering healthier learning environments. These grants will invest in school facilities that demonstrate the need for both energy improvements and financing, with a focus on Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) that qualify as disadvantaged and/or rural.

The deadline to apply for the grants is Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 5pm EDT. Click here for more information on how to apply.

The following links are recent news articles and reports on state and national education-related issues.

State News
News & Observer: Middle class and wealthy NC families are those waiting for private school voucher funding
Associated Press: Moms for Liberty to spend over $3 million targeting presidential swing state voters
EducationNC: Perspective | Forging futures: Increasing graduation rates for students in foster care
WFAE: School buildings tell stories about our changing world
Cardinal & Pine: Op-Ed: For Latinos, ‘parent’s rights’ should be about support and respect
NC Insider: High demand for free period products, little funding available
EducationNC: North Carolina community colleges expand programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities
EducationNC: National survey finds supportive communities make a difference for LGBTQ+ youth

National News       
Brookings: How US employers and educators can build a more nimble education system with multiple paths to success
Associated Press: 70 years ago, school integration was a dream many believed could actually happen. It hasn’t
The Daily Yonder: Rural Schools Look for Ways to Bring More Multilingual Education into the Curriculum
The 74: Over Half of States Sue to Block Biden Title IX Rule Protecting LGBTQ+ Students
WFAE: These teens were missing too much school. Here’s what it took to get them back
New York Times: How Free School Meals Went Mainstream
Homeroom (The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education): Healthier Foods, Healthier Minds
Bellwether: The Edge of Seventeen: What Does It Mean To Be a Young Adult in America in 2024?

We are proud to present the newest section of the NCSBA Legislative Update: Resources! This section will be populated by resources directly related to school board members and/or your district’s efforts. The resources section will be included whenever we have new materials to share. *Please note that inclusion of a resource does not denote endorsement.*

The following links are additional resources related to school boards and K-12 education.

NCSU NC School Connectivity Initiative: NCDPI K-12 Cybersecurity Program
North Carolina Department of Public Safety: New state website offers one-stop-shop for N.C. community climate change resources

House: Local Government
Wednesday, May 29, Immediately After Session
Click here to stream.
The bills being heard include HB 1058: Jackson Co Bd of Ed Elections to Nov and HB 1067: Employee Housing/Durham County (=S905).

Currently, no other schedules have been released for education-related committees next week. Check the NC General Assembly calendar page for updates.

Stay informed throughout the week with our posts on X (formerly Twitter). Click here to follow and explore our page.