Bill Summaries: all (2019-2020 Session)

Tracking:
  • Summary date: Jul 22 2019 - View summary

    AN ACT TO MAKE VARIOUS CHANGES TO HIGHER EDUCATION LAWS. SL 2019-139. Enacted July 19, 2019. Effective July 19, 2019.


  • Summary date: Jun 26 2019 - View summary

    Senate committee substitute to the 2nd edition deletes the act's previous provisions except for the proposed changes to GS 115D-58.10. Qualifies the proposed changes to GS 115D-58.10, which permits community colleges to provide sufficient insurance coverage in lieu of a surety bond, providing that the changes are repealed if HB 966 (the 2019 Appropriations Act) becomes law. Adds the following.

    Amends GS 116-37.1 to rename the UNC Center for Public Television as the UNC Center for Public Media (the Center). Now includes in the functions of the Center the responsibility to provide research, development, and production of noncommercial educational and information media programming, and program material and communications; to provide distribution of noncommercial media programming and information through the broadcast facilities licensed to UNC and other available distribution platforms; and otherwise to enhance the uses of television, media, and related technology for public purposes. Adds the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety as an ex officio member of the Center's Board of Trustees. Makes technical changes. Amends the following statutes, making conforming changes to refer to the UNC Center for Public Media: GS 116-36, GS 116D-1, GS 116D-22, GS 120-123, GS 143B-426.9, and GS 143B-426.10. 

    Amends GS 116-41.2 to authorize the Board of Governors (BOG) to purchase or finance the purchase of computers, computer hardware and software, and emergency management equipment through lease purchase or installment purchase contracts that create a security interest in the purchased property, subject to State appropriations. Prohibits directly or indirectly pledging the State's taxing power. Makes the BOG and the State judgment proof for breach of a contractual obligation under this new provision.

    Amends GS 116-143.1, concerning residency status for higher education tuition purposes, to specifically allow an individual to offer evidence of graduation from a North Carolina high school to reinforce or rebut the presumption that the individual's domicile is the same domicile as the individual's living parent or guardian. Adds that such evidence alone cannot establish legal residence in the State.

    Amends the act's long title.


  • Summary date: Apr 29 2019 - View summary

    House committee substitute to the 1st edition makes the following changes. Amends GS 115D-3 to make the report from the Community Colleges President on the reorganization of the System Office due by June 30 (was, March 1) and adds the NCGA Fiscal Research Division to the report's recipients. Deletes the provisions in Part II that amended the NC Teaching Fellows Program and that amended provisions related to UNC laboratory schools. Make a clarifying change.


  • Summary date: Apr 9 2019 - View summary

    Part I.

    Amends reporting requirements under GS 115D-5 (report on the waiver of tuition and registration fees), GS 115D-5.1, and GS 115D-9 (report on the approval of expenditures of any State funds for any capital improvements of existing institutions), and GS 126-8.3 (report on the on the voluntary shared leave program) by transferring reporting duties from the State Board of Community Colleges to the Community Colleges System Office. Further amends GS 115D-5.1 to make the report on the Customized Training Program due annually by September 1 (was, on an annual basis with no specified due date). Amends GS 115D-11.6 to require the Apprenticeship Council's report to be submitted annually by September 1 (was, on an annual basis with no specified due date) and amends the report recipients.

    Amends GS 115D-58.10 by allowing the State Board of Community Colleges (Board) to determine what State employees and employees of institutions must be insured for the protection of State funds and property. Makes conforming changes. Provides that in lieu of a bond, the board of trustees of an institution may obtain and maintain adequate insurance coverage sufficient for the protection of institutional funds and property.

    Amends GS 115D-3 by adding that the President of the North Carolina System of Community Colleges may reorganize the System Office in accordance with recommendations and plans submitted to and approved by the Board. Requires a report by March 1 if a reorganization is implemented to the specified NCGA committee. Makes organizational changes. Effective July 1, 2019. 

    Part II.

    Amends GS 116-209.62, regarding the NC Teaching Fellows Program (Program). Expands the Program to include eight higher education institutions with approved educator preparation programs (EPPs) that represent a diverse selection by the Teaching Fellows Commission of both postsecondary constituent institutions of the UNC System and private postsecondary institutions operating in the State (previously, limited selection to five institutions and did not require the selections to represent a diverse pool). Makes technical and conforming changes. Effective July 1, 2019, and applies to the award of forgivable loans beginning with the 2020-21 academic year. 

    Further amends GS 116-209.62 to provide for forgivable loans under the Program to students matriculating at institutions of higher education who are changing to an approved program of study at (was, enrollment in) a selected EPP. Effective July 1, 2019, and applies to the award of forgivable loans beginning with the 2019-20 academic year.

    Amends GS 116-239.8 to clarify that local school administrative units in which the laboratory school is located must administer, at its cost, the National School Lunch Program for the laboratory school. Provides that the local school administrative unit in which the laboratory school is located must provide transportation to students who reside in the local school administrative unit and attend the school (was, to students attending the school), and adds that this includes any students who are homeless and require assistance under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Adds that the transportation requirement (1) applies regardless of where a laboratory school student resides in the unit or how the unit's transportation policies and practices are applied to other students and (2) includes providing transportation of students and personnel for laboratory school extracurricular activities and education trips in the same manner as other schools in the unit for that school year. Applies beginning with the 2019-20 school year.

    Amends GS 116-239.5 by expanding on the immunities of the Subcommittee, chancellor, the constituent institution, an advisory board, and a laboratory school, and their members, employees, and agents, to include the specific immunities provided for in GS Chapter 115C applying to the State Board of Education, Superintendent of Public Instruction, a local board of education, a local school administrative unit, and their members and employees.

    Amends GS 116-239.5, GS 116-239.7, and SL 2016-94 by reducing the number of designated laboratory schools from nine to six. 

    Amends GS 116-41.30 to make the Future Teachers of North Carolina Program (Program) a selective, application-based symposium for high school juniors and seniors, offering a challenging introduction to teaching as a profession (was, a program providing professional development and curricula for courses that provide a challenging introduction to teaching as a profession for high school students offered by participating high schools in conjunction with college partners). Expands upon course content and sets out required practical benefits of the Program. 

    Amends GS 116-41.31, which required the President of the University of North Carolina to select three constituent institutions to collaborate on development of the curricula for the Program and provide professional development; instead requires the President to establish a Future Teachers of North Carolina Advisory Council (Council) to oversee the Program. Requires the Council, at the President's discretion, to coordinate with constituent institutions to use expertise from individuals at institutions of higher education in designing the agenda and instructional content for the Symposium. Also makes the Council responsible for an application process to be used to select students as well as recruitment and outreach efforts. Deletes provisions encouraging high schools to offer Program courses to students. Deletes provisions requiring constituent institutions that partner with high schools to offer dual credit for high school students who complete the Program course with a specified grade.

    Amends GS 116-41.32 by amending the items related to the Program that the UNC System Office must report on and changing the due date of the first report to October 15, 2020 (was, October 15, 2019). 

    Amends SL 2018-5, Section 36.6, by requiring the UNC Board of Governors Planning Task Force to submit a preliminary report by April 1, 2019, and submit a final report by February 2020 (was, submit a report by April 1, 2019, only). Adds that the funds appropriated to the Board of Governors for the Task Force for 2018-19 do not revert at the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year and remain available until the end of the 2019-20 fiscal year. Effective June 30, 2019.

    Provides that the funds appropriated by SL 2018-5 for enrollment adjustments for The University of North Carolina, including funds for the NC Promise Tuition Plan, to a reserve account in the Office of State Budget and Management for the 2018-19 fiscal year do not revert at the end of 2018-19 but remain available until the end of the 2019-20 fiscal year for the purpose of the "buy down" of any financial obligations resulting from the established tuition rate under GS 116-143.11 incurred by Elizabeth City State University, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Western Carolina University, or for rapid growth at any of those constituent institutions. Effective June 30, 2019.