NCSBA Legislative Update – March 18, 2022

NCSBA Legislative Update – March 18, 2022

 

The following is from DPI’s Division of School Business:

G.S. 115C-84.2(a2) specifies that a report on the start and end dates of the instructional calendar for students for the next academic year be provided to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education by April 1 of each year. To make this deadline, the start and end dates of the instructional calendar for students for each school must be in PowerSchool before April 1.

A report of the 2022-2023 school start and end dates will be shared with public school units (PSUs) for verification and to identify the statutory exception authorizing an earlier start date for schools with a start date earlier than August 29, 2022.

Reminder: It has come to our attention that districts may have or be planning to adopt calendars not compliant with the calendar law. Pursuant to G.S. 115C-84.2(a)(d) the opening date for students shall be no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26 and the closing date for students shall be not later than the Friday closest to June 11. Unless the district has received an approved calendar waiver for the 2022-2023 school year, the start date should be no earlier than August 29, 2022 and the end date should be no later than June 9, 2023.

Contact: studentaccounting@dpi.nc.gov.

 

As of Friday, March 18,

  • 112 school districts have mask optional policies (one has a mask optional policy with certain stipulations and three have pending effective dates)
  • 3 school districts have mask mandates

The number of districts that have adopted optional mask policies has increased by two since last Friday, March 11.

NCSBA continues to track local school boards’ mask policies as districts vote monthly on whether to modify their current policy (required by Section 10 of SB 654/SL 2021-130). Click here to access a chart of school board actions. If your school district changes its mask policy or you have corrections to the chart, please email information to Rebekah Howard at rhoward@ncsba.org.

 

State Budget Technical Corrections Bill

On Thursday, Governor Cooper signed HB 243: Budget Technical Corrections into SL 2022-6, following the bill’s passage in both the House and Senate last week. The following are education-related sections of the bill:

  • Section 2.2 Special Education Due Process Hearings (page 2)
  • Section 2.3 Add Final Report on Missing Student Identification/ESSER Allocation (page 3)
  • Section 2.4 Clarify Support Services Expanded by Communities in Schools/ESSER Allocation (page 3)
  • Section 2.6 Dual Enrollment/Opportunity Study (page 3)
  • Section 2.7 Extend Deadline for Student Transportation Report on Medicaid Reimbursement (page 4)
  • Section 2.9 Revise Deadlines for Report on Science of Reading EPP Coursework Implementation (page 6)
  • Section 2.13 Clarify Definition of Eligible Student in Equity in Opportunity Act (page 7)
  • Section 2.14 Revise and Clarify PESA Scholarship Awards for Eligible Part-Time Students with Certain Disabilities (page 7)
  • Local provisions:
    • Section 18.1 SCIF Grant Changes (page 37, number 28)
    • Section 19.2 Corrections and Revisions to the Department of Transportation Committee Report (page 42, number 2)

 

On Monday, March 21 at 5:00 pm the House Select Committee on An Education System for North Carolina’s Future will hold a public hearing at the Union County Professional Development Center, 721 Brewer Drive, Monroe, NC 28112. A livestream will be made available by the Union County Professional Development Center on YouTube @UCPS BOE, and a link to the meeting will be posted on the UCPS website and on the district’s Facebook page at the start of the meeting.

 

Please note that we will not be sending legislative updates on a weekly basis while the General Assembly is not in session.

 

 

 

Bruce Mildwurf
Director of Governmental Relations
N.C. School Boards Association
bmildwurf@ncsba.org

Rebekah Howard
Governmental Relations Research Specialist
N.C. School Boards Association
rhoward@ncsba.org

North Carolina School Boards AssociationNCSBA Legislative Update – March 18, 2022