Chapel Hill schools put on notice: ‘Compliance isn’t voluntary,’ NC House leader says
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- CHCCS Act to create financial penalties and hold schools accountable for noncompliance.
- CHCCS Act would prohibit elementary library books addressing gender identity or sexuality.
- Officials: Chapel Hill-Carrboro complies with K-4 restrictions, parent permission rules.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Superintendent Rodney Trice endured a barrage of questions and allegations Thursday about gender and sexuality in elementary schools before a House leader introduced a bill to put teeth in the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
“Compliance with state law is not voluntary. Going forward, it will not be without consequence,” House Majority Leader Brenden Jones said at the end of a nearly three-hour hearing.
”Due to your testimony today … I introduced legislation to ensure that districts that fail to comply with the Parents’ Bill of Rights face real and forceful consequences, including financial penalties they will not be able to ignore,” he said, “and for everyone to remember why we have it today, it will be called the CHCCS Act … because if a district chooses not to follow the law, it should not be expected to continue receiving taxpayer dollars without accountability.”
The proposed Curriculum Honesty, Compliance, and Child Safety (CHCCS) Act would prohibit elementary school libraries from having books that address gender identity, sexuality or sexual activity, even if the books are not part of the school’s curriculum.
It would also limit classroom materials to those provided by the school district, and further clarify that teachers need a parent’s permission before changing a student’s name or pronoun in school records or before calling a student by a different name.
Parents who cannot get complaints resolved through the school or district could seek legal relief and damages, including up to $5,000 for each violation. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the State Auditor’s Office could also launch independent investigations, giving the district 45 days to correct any problems that are found.
Districts and schools, including charter schools, could lose money to pay for central office staff until the state auditor reports they are in compliance.
Does Chapel-Carrboro comply with law?
Thursday’s hearing was the latest in an escalating series of confrontations between the House Standing Committee on Oversight and Reform and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, one of North Carolina’s most progressive school districts.
Trice said multiple times that his district is complying with the Parents’ Bill of Rights law, which regulates how parents can stay informed and involved in their child’s health and education.
It also requires staff to notify parents before changing a student’s name or pronoun in the classroom or in school records and bans instruction about gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality in kindergarten through fourth grade.
But it does not give the state a way to enforce its provisions. Parents can already file a formal complaint with their school district and appeal local decisions to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. They can also file a lawsuit in court.
CHCCS guidance doesn’t require teachers and other staff to tell parents if a student objects, but they also can’t use different names or pronouns.
Some Republicans repeated questions Thursday that they asked Trice at a December hearing. Others delved into the role of library books in elementary school.
Jones, in an April 2 letter to Trice, said his staff had identified 155 books in CHCCS elementary school catalogs that conflicted with the Parents’ Bill of Rights. Al McArthur, the district’s director of digital learning and library services, responded to the committee in prepared statements that there were only 63 titles, because some books were in more than one library.
McArthur also appeared at the committee hearing Thursday.
Democrats press about funding, enrollment
Democratic lawmakers tried to steer the conversation back to challenges facing schools across the state. Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s school board is wrestling with which schools to close and cutting more positions to right-size the district’s staff and its budget.
The problem stems largely from a 1,547-student enrollment decline since the COVID pandemic, because of falling birth rates, rising housing costs, and increasing interest in private, charter and homeschools.
Same-sex marriage is legal in North Carolina, and a book that shows same-sex couples hugging is no different from a book about heterosexual couples, Democratic Rep. Eric Ager said, as he turned the conversation with Trice toward challenges shared by North Carolina school districts.
“Instead of playing this gotcha game here we’re engaging in ... we really could be kicking in to solve these problems by passing budgets to pay teachers,” Ager said to applause.
“We know the price of health care is going through the roof. We’ve got lots of folks in our rural communities who are struggling. Our jail systems are chronically underfunded. … Those are the real problems facing North Carolina,” he said.
Hearing turns into shouting matches
The line of questioning led to frustration for Trice, who typically appears calm and soft-spoken. Republican lawmakers tried to get him to admit the district is violating the law, and Trice, at one point, engaged in a shouting match with Republican Rep. Mike Schietzelt.
Schietzelt argued that even library books stocked to serve student interests have a curriculum role because they encourage kids to read and learn. Trice and McArthur argued that books students check out because they find them interesting, whether about Legos or famous athletes, are not part of the curriculum.
“The problem here is that we’ve asked you questions about ... a very fair and straightforward application of the law, and you two gentlemen have come in and tried to split hairs about how that law is supposed to apply by trying to distinguish between books that serve student interests and books that serve the curriculum,” Schietzelt said.
Parents can choose to limit what their child checks out from the school library under a separate law approved last year — House Bill 805 — which requires teachers and school libraries to post online databases of books available to students. Only one CHCCS parent has challenged a book, and that is going through the committee review process, district officials have said.
Democratic Rep. Maria Cervania pointed out the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled on equal protection grounds that schools cannot remove books simply because they oppose the ideas in them.
Students are also “very savvy” now about how babies are born, compared with when she was growing up, Cervania said.
Jones clashed with Trice near the end of the hearing, after goading the superintendent to admit some books in the elementary school libraries are not appropriate for first- and second-graders.
“Would Playboy magazine be allowed?” Jones asked, when Trice refused to address individual books.
“I’m not going to entertain that. It’s a ridiculous question,” Trice said, as Jones shouted over him.
“You’re on the wrong side of history. This committee is going make certain the public sees what you’re doing,” Jones said, before asking Trice to read some of the LGBTQ-themed books found in CHCCS school libraries. Trice refused.
“Let the record reflect, the superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools will not read the books that are in his library in the legislative chamber, from the books he has sworn are permissible in his own elementary school library, Jones said, before reading several excerpts.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 3:02 PM.
