• Policy Amendment Restricting Authority for Local School Boards to Exceed Minimum Graduation Requirements
• New Policy on Parents Bill of Rights Appeals
• Emergency Rule on Parental Concern Hearings
• Emergency Rule on Three-Year High School Graduation
• Annual Report to NC General Assembly on Low Performing Districts and Schools
• New Policy on Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind

Policy Amendment Restricting Authority for Local School Boards to Exceed Minimum Graduation Requirements:  The Board approved this policy which eliminates the specific authority for local boards of education to exceed the minimum requirements for graduation established by the SBE. Local Boards of Education may provide recommendations for additional requirements. This policy does not go into effect until the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. See the policy here.

Emergency Rule on Three-Year High School Graduation: To meet statutory obligations, the Board is required to develop a sequence of courses that shall be available to all local school administrative units to allow a student to complete the credits required for graduation in a three-year period. Additionally, the Board is required to adopt an emergency rule by November 1, 2023, to implement this requirement so that local school administrative units can advise students on the three-year graduation option beginning with the 2023-2024 school year. The Board approved the Emergency Rule on Three-Year High School Graduation. See the emergency rule here.

New Policy on Parents Bill of Rights Appeals:  The Board approved this policy which details the parental concern hearings procedure required by the Parents’ Bill of Rights. The policy describes the issues that may be appealed to the SBE under this policy and the hearing procedures for those issues. This item was before the SBE in October as a discussion item. See the policy here.

Emergency Rule on Parental Concern Hearings: To meet statutory obligations, the Board is required to adopt rules for parental concern hearings related to matters arising under Chapter 115C, Article 7B, Part 4 of the General Statues by January 30, 2024. The Board approved the proposed temporary rule and the text for the proposed temporary rule. See the emergency rule here.

Annual Report to NC General Assembly on Low Performing Districts and Schools: The Board approved a report that addresses the following:  districts and schools identified as low performing, effective improvement planning, and recommendations for additional legislation to improve student performance and increase local flexibility. See the report here and a presentation on the report here.

New Policy on Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind: The Board approved three new policies on Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind to Implement S.L. 2023-106: Parents’ Bill of Rights. See the three new policies here: (1) Parental Involvement Policy; (2) Parental Inspection of and Objection to Instructional Materials; (3) Surveys of Students

This month, the Board received several reports and discussed proposed changes to policy as follows:

NC Recovery Practitioners Network
Sixteen districts have been chosen to join this new network. The network is a partnership between NCDPI, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education, NC Collaborator, Harvard University, Georgetown University, and local district leaders. Researchers at these schools will work with DPI and local leaders to develop recovery-focused interventions and evaluation plans to address pressing issues in local school districts. For more on this and to see the districts selected see here.

NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey
At the request of the SBE, DPI has revised and updated the NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey for the first time in many years. Staff released the revised draft of the survey they plan to use and discussed the goals of the survey and the data to be gathered. See presentation here and survey here.\

CARES Model Evaluation Report and One District’s Journey
This is a two year evaluation report. One of the goals of the CARES model is to improve school and district performance by 2027. The findings in the report are based on publicly available, aggregated school-level analysis. Individual student-level analysis will be included in subsequent reports based on data availability. In the last meeting, CARES school scores were broken down by region level analysis, this report goes one step further and breaks down scores by region level analysis. See a presentation on preliminary evaluation findings about CARES transformation coaching here and a presentation from Northampton County Schools here.

New Policy on Parents’ Guide to Student Achievement: The Board is committed to establishing minimum requirements by May 1. DPI is diligently engaging various stakeholders in the process of developing these requirements to ensure they align with the relevant legislation. While many aspects of the requirements are already being implemented in schools, the critical aspect was consolidating this information in a user-friendly format for parents to easily access.  This new policy is being taken up for approval next month.  See the policy here and a presentation from DPI outlining the minimum requirements and clarifying reporting deadlines here.

Computer Science Courses Satisfying Graduation Requirements:  In June 2023, a preliminary list of courses was published on the Computer Science and Technology website and distributed to PSUs for their input. The feedback received has been integrated into a list which was presented to the Board and is recommended for Board approval.  See the list of computer science courses here.  See a presentation for more detail here.