NC lawmakers give flexibility for how districts use online learning, year-round schools
Updated July 2
North Carolina lawmakers are giving schools more flexibility about when they can use online learning next school year, as well as helping save a calendar used by thousands of Wake County year-round students.
State lawmakers unanimously passed a bill last week that allows individual school districts and charter schools to schedule additional days of remote instruction when it considers them to be necessary for the health and safety of students.
Senate Bill 113 also includes a section requested by the Wake County school system to modify the definition of single-track year-round schools. School leaders said they needed the wording change to avoid forcing single-track year-round schools to switch to a traditional calendar for the 2020-21 school year.
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Monday he had signed Senate Bill 113 into law and on Wednesday that he had signed House Bill 1023 as well. State Superintendent Mark Johnson said the approval of both bills will help schools prepare for the new school year.
“We appreciate the General Assembly’s actions to ensure that our state’s educators and students have support to meet our schools’ critical needs during this pandemic,” Johnson said in a news release. “This is a challenging time for our students, educators and parents, and these funds will help us focus our efforts to meet their needs.”
All North Carolina public schools have been closed for in-person instruction since mid-March to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Coronavirus relief legislation passed in the spring included a requirement that schools build five remote learning days into the 2020-21 school year and submit plans to the State Board of Education. The new state law also said that schools could use more than five days of remote learning only if a state of emergency or disaster was declared.
Flexibility in holding remote learning days
But under Senate Bill 113, school districts and charter schools can schedule additional remote learning days if they determine it’s needed “to ensure the health and safety of students.”
Other parts in the bill include:
▪ Streamlines school psychologist licensure requirements to expand student access to school psychologists.
▪ Provides private schools with immunity from lawsuits for COVID-19 related tuition refunds. A similar provision was passed to protect colleges and universities.
▪ Permits the state superintendent to approve the issuance of private activity bonds to finance or refinance a charter school facility.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 12:32 PM.
