K-12 Bill Summaries and Links

SB 598Future Teachers of North Carolina

Incorporated into compromise budget; Gubernatorial veto overridden

The purpose of this bill is to “encourage high-achieving high school students with strong academic, interpersonal, and leadership skills to consider teaching as a career.” The program would provide professional development and curricula for courses that provide an introduction to teaching for high school students. Participating high schools would apply to and partner with willing and “geographically appropriate” colleges to offer courses in pedagogy as well as provide field experiences.

This program will be located administratively at UNC GA; the UNC President will select three constituent institutions to collaborate on developing program curricula and professional development for high school teachers who will teach FTNC courses.

Participating IHEs must offer dual credit for HS students who complete the FTNC course with a grade of “B” or better and this data must be reported annually to UNC GA as well as data showing how many of these students go on to apply for admission into an educator prep program.

H155 Omnibus Education Law Changes

Passed, presented to the Governor on 6/28/17

HB 155 makes changes to various education statutes. Among these changes are the following:

  1. Part III authorizes assistant principals at schools with at least 1500 students to conduct evaluations for beginning teachers provided that at least one evaluation in that teacher’s first three years is conducted by the principal
  2. Part IV directs the Superintendent to form a Working Group to study effective positive intervention measures or policy changes to address risky behaviors and encourage student health and mental health.
  3. Part VI directs the Superintendent and DPI to collaborate with the Friday Institute at NCSU and the NC School of Science and Math to develop recommendations to “further the teaching and learning of computational thinking and computer science in NC K-12 schools.”

H532Modify UNC Laboratory Schools

Passed, presented to the Governor on 6/27/17

This bill makes the following adjustments to the governance and operation of The UNC Laboratory Schools:

  1. Requires the creation of nine laboratory schools rather than 8
  2. The UNC BOG must establish a Subcommittee on Lab Schools to review and evaluate proposals for nine schools and oversee the operations of the lab schools that are established. The BOG Subcommittee, the chancellor of each constituent institution operating a lab school, and the lab school are exempt from statutes and rules applicable to traditional public schools. Previous legislation required the board of trustees of a constituent institution to approve creation of a lab school.
  3. Allows chancellors to submit a proposal to the Subcommittee to put a lab school in a district does not meet the minimum of 25% low-performing schools if they can show the school would serve mainly students who did not meet expected growth in the prior school year.
  4. Chancellors, not the boards of trustees, will be the administrative heads of the lab schools. Chancellors should establish an advisory board to provide input on operating procedures and curricula.
  5. Chancellors are to appoint all staff and all staff will be considered State employees.

S517 North Carolina New Teacher Support Act

Incorporated into compromise budget; Gubernatorial veto overridden

Part I of this legislation defines a highly qualified graduate as someone who has graduated from an approved education prep program in NC; had a GPA of 3.75 or higher; scored a 48 on the edTPA assessment or equivalent score on a nationally normed test used to determine clinical practice.

  • Highly qualified grads would start out being paid for three years’ experience if employed in a low-performing school for the first four years of employment
  • Highly qualified grads would start out being paid for two years’ experience if employed to teach special ed or in a STEM field for the first three years of employment
  • Highly qualified grads would start out being paid for one year of experience if employed to teach special ed or in a STEM field for the first two years of employment

Part II appropriates $1M in recurring funds to the UNC BOG to support and expand the NC New Teacher Support Program, including two new anchor sites at Appalachian State University and UNC Wilmington.

Part III requires the State Board of Education to reimburse the initial license for applicants who are graduates of an approved EPP in North Carolina.

S599 Excellent Educators for Every Classroom

Passed, presented to the Governor on 6/30/17

See link to full bill summary and analysis prepared by the Legislative Analysis Division:

SB 448Professors in the Classroom

New session law

This bill allows local boards of education to contract with higher ed faculty to serve as adjunct instructors in K-12 schools without having to obtain a teaching license. The State Board will be required to establish some minimum criteria for those professors wishing to participate:

  • Must be considered temporary employees of the district
  • Must pass a criminal background check
  • Must receive preservice training in areas such as classroom management skills and identification of students with learning disabilities

SB 252Teaching Fellows

Incorporated into budget bill

This legislation re-establishes the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. The program provides forgivable loans to students who are enrolled in EPPs and studying to be a STEM-area teacher or a special education teacher.

The legislation also creates a 14-member Commission that will determine the recipient selection criteria, selection procedures, and recipients.

The program will be housed administratively at UNC GA and the SEAA will use up to $600K for administrative costs, a director’s salary, the Commission’s expenses, and enhancement activities for the recipients. The director will report to the President of UNC.

The program must be administered in cooperation with 5 institutes of higher education with approved EPPs selected by the Commission and will include both public and private institutions.

Recipients will be selected by April 1, 2018 for the 2018-19 academic year.

SB 315 Make Various Changes Regarding Higher Ed

New session law

Senate Bill 315 does the following (among others):

  • Directs the President of UNC to implement the University of North Carolina Undergraduate Degree Completion Improvement Plan
  • Requires development of an articulation agreement between UNC and the NC Community College System in early childhood education programs
  • Directs the President of UNC (or designee) to consider and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks in applying for and implementing the UTEACH program within the UNC system; report of findings due by April 1, 2018

Digital Learning Plan/Programs/Funds

Incorporated in the budget bill

Section 7.23K.(a) of the budget bill directs UNC educator preparation programs to collaborate with the State Board of Education, and the Friday Institute to develop and implement professional development for both in-service and pre-service teachers for the use of technology and digital resources as teaching tools for K-12 students.

Section 7.23K.(b) of the budget bill directs UNC educator preparation programs to collaborate with the State Board of Education, DPI, and local boards of education in economically distressed counties to assess current practices around digital literacy instruction in grades K-8 and to develop a plan to strengthen these practices.

This language is found on pages 61-62 of the budget bill, linked here: S257