Senate committee substitute makes the following changes to the 1st edition.

Amends the act's short and long titles.

Adds a new subsection to GS 116-11, pertaining to the powers and duties of the UNC Board of Governors (BOG), and a new subsection to GS 115D-5, pertaining to the powers and duties of the State Board of Community Colleges. Directs the BOG and the State Board to adopt a policy to be applied uniformly throughout each System, providing that any enrolled student who is a National Guard Service Member placed on State active duty status during an academic term be given an excused absence for the period of time the student is on active duty. Details four requirements of the policy, including requiring that the student be given the opportunity to make up any test or other work missed during the excused absence, and permitting the student to drop, with no penalty, any course that the student was unable to complete as a result of being placed on State active duty status. Requires the BOG and the State Board to adopt these policies by July 1, 2017, and to direct each constituent institution or community college to implement the policies beginning with the 2017 fall academic term. Applies beginning with the 2017 fall academic semester.

Removes the application provision for proposed GS 116-209.54(b).

Amends GS 116-143.3A, pertaining to the waiver of 12-month residency requirement for certain veterans and other individuals entitled to federal education benefits under 38 USC Chapter 30 or 38 USC Chapter 33. Adds new subsection (c1), making eligible for the in-state tuition rate recipients using transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits (38 USC 3319) while the transferor is on active duty in the Armed Forces, the commissioned corps of the US Public Health Service, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, so long as the recipient's abode is in North Carolina and the recipient provides the institution of higher education a letter of intent to establish NC residency.

Adds new subsection (c2), making eligible for the in-state tuition rate recipients of the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship (38 USC 3311(b)(9)), whose parent or spouse died in the line of duty, without regard as to whether the death in the line of duty followed a period of active duty service of 90 days or more, so long as the recipient's abode is in North Carolina and the recipient provides the institution of higher education a letter of intent to establish NC residency.

Makes conforming changes to subsection (c). Modifies subsection (d), providing that after the expiration of the three-year period following discharge (currently, following discharge or death) as described in 38 USC 3679(c), any enrolled veteran entitled to federal education benefits under 38 USC Chapter 30 or 38 USC Chapter 33 and any other enrolled individual described in subsection (c) of GS 116-143.3A entitled to federal educational benefits under 38 USC Chapter 30 or 38 USC Chapter 33 who is eligible for in-State tuition under the statute continues to be eligible for the in-State tuition rate, provided that the covered individual remains continuously enrolled at that institution of higher education. Effective July 1, 2017.