Part I.

Appropriates $139,201,964 for 2020-21 from the General Fund for the purposes described in this act, to be allocated to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), University of North Carolina, Child Development and Early Education, and Public Health in the specified amounts, with some funds recurring and others nonrecurring. Requires the funds to be allocated in specified amounts for the following purposes: expand Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Funding, the Instructional Support Allotment, expand the School Connectivity Initiative, implement the requirements of Section 2.3 of the act (concerning funds for children with disabilities), provide assistance and turnaround support to continually low-performing schools through the regional support structure, supplemental funding to specified cooperative innovative high schools, to create and disseminate curriculum materials addressing racial bias in classroom instruction, the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program Trust Fund to provide for additional slots for forgivable loans, study strategies for educator preparation programs of institutions of higher education to effectively and proactively adjust the size of their programs and the number of faculty and staff for each program (includes additional requirements for the study), support adding approximately 300 beginning teachers from low-performing and high-poverty schools to participate in NC NTSP each year (includes hiring additional teaching coaches and enable partnerships), increase the reimbursement rate for slots for the NC Pre-K program. the Smart Start local partnerships, increase recruitment and retention of quality early childhood educators though specified measures, and to the North Carolina Infant-Toddler Program for increased staffing and professional development. 

Provides that the provision of the State Budget Act are reenacted and incorporated into the act by reference.

Provides that except where expressly repealed or amended by this act, the provisions of other legislation enacted during the 2019 Regular Session expressly appropriating funds to an agency, department, or institution covered in this act, remain in effect.

Provides that if H966 (2019 Appropriations Act) becomes law and if there is a conflict with that act or the Committee Report, then this act controls.

Part II.

Section 2.1

Requires that funds appropriated in this act for disadvantaged student supplemental funding be used only to: (1) provide instructional positions or instructional support positions; (2) provide professional development; (3) provide intensive in-school or after-school remediation, or both; (4) purchase diagnostic software and progress-monitoring tools, and (5) provide funds for teacher bonuses and supplements. Requires the State Board of Education (SBOE) to set a maximum percentage of the funds that may be used for this purpose and allows the SBOE to require local school administrative units receiving funding under the Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund to purchase the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), with data to be used only for instructional and curriculum decisions made in the best interest of children and for professional development for their teachers and administrators.

Requires disadvantaged student supplemental funding (DSSF) to be allotted to a local school administrative unit based on the unit's eligible DSSF population and the difference between a teacher-to-student ratio of 1:21 and the listed teacher-to-student ratios that vary depending the county's wealth.

Section 2.2 

Requires the SBOE and DPI, in collaboration with the Friday Institute at North Carolina State University, to expand the School Connectivity Initiative to improve student access to broadband Internet outside the classroom, to minimally include the creation of a competitive grant program administered by DPI for 2002-21. Requires DPI to prioritize grant applications that emphasize effective methods of providing sustainable, broadband Internet access. Require recipients to report on progress. Allows DPI to use up to $200,000 of the funds appropriated for the School Connectivity Initiative by this act to administer the program. Requires SBOE to include related specified information in its January 15, 2021, report.

Section 2.3

Requires the SBOE to allocate additional funds for children with disabilities on the basis of $4,567 per child for 2020-21. Sets out the criteria for calculating how much each local school administrative unit is to receive. 

Section 2.4

Requires DPI and SBOE to review historical turnaround efforts that have demonstrated measurable successful outcomes and apply the most effective methods in using the funds appropriated by this act for the turnaround of continually low-performing schools. Requires DPI to use its regional support structure and give special consideration to the use of the six specified measures, including: (1) school-driven, school-led improvement plans that are guided and supported by DPI; (2) transformation coaches to act as insider advocates of the school in offering consistent and sustained expertise and support in the implementation of improvement plans; and (3) cooperative models of communication and consensus building to the greatest extent possible, with the goal of fostering morale in order to reduce leadership and staff turnover. Requires a report to the specified NCGA committee by January 15, 2022.

Section 2.5

Requires the UNC Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina, to collaborate with the specified entities in developing a curriculum training program that ensures that the instruction provided by educators in the State's public schools is designed to eliminate or reduce racial bias in the classroom. Specifies what is to be included, at a minimum, in the curriculum. Requires the curriculum materials to be made available by July 1, 2021, to public and private educator preparation programs for free. Requires the curriculum to be incorporated into existing State programs in educator preparation and professional development for teachers. 

Amends GS 115C-269.20 to require that all Educator Preparation Programs include instruction in the reduction of racial bias in the delivery of instruction in the classroom. Applies beginning with instruction provided to candidates entering an educator preparation program in the 2022-23 academic year.

Section 2.6

Amends Part 3 of Article 23 of GS Chapter 116, the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program (Program), as follows. Amends GS 116-209.62, expanding the purpose of the Program to now be to recruit, prepare, and support students residing in or attending higher education institutions in the State for preparation as highly effective teachers in the State's public schools, rather than specifically targeting STEM or special education teachers. Makes conforming changes throughout Part 3 to remove references limiting the provisions' application to STEM or special education teachers. Expands the Program to include participation by up to eight (was, five) institutions of higher education with approved educator preparation programs and requires that selections represent a diverse selection of both postsecondary constituent institutions of UNC and private postsecondary institutions operating in the State. Amends the Program's loan forgiveness so that it applies to loan recipients who within 10 years after graduation from a program leading to teacher licensure, serving as a teacher for every year the teacher was awarded the forgivable loan, in any combination of: (1) one year at a North Carolina public school identified as a high-poverty (was, low-performing) school at the time the teacher accepts employment at the school or, if the teacher changes employment during this period, at another school identified as high poverty (was, low-performing), or (2) two years at a North Carolina public school not identified as a high-poverty (was, low-performing) school. Applies to the administration of the Program on or after July 1, 2020.

Section 2.7

States the NCGA's intent to enact additional legislation on the following topics: (1) increased compensation for teachers, principals, assistant principals, and central office personnel; (2) minimum hourly salary of at least $15 per hour for noncertified public school employees; (3) additional funding for professional development for teachers, administrators, and instructional support personnel; (4) universal, broadband internet access for public school students by the 2024-25 school year; (5) additional funding appropriated incrementally for students with disabilities until a sum sufficient is reached such the SBOE would be directed to allocate additional funds for children with disabilities on the basis of two and three-tenths times the average per pupil allocation for average daily membership, except for the allocation for children with disabilities and for the allocation for children with limited English proficiency, each local school administrative unit receives these funds for all children who are identified as children with disabilities; (6) additional funding appropriated incrementally until supplemental funding for low-wealth counties is equal to 110% of the statewide average local revenue per student; (7) additional funding appropriated incrementally for the limited English proficiency allotment category and to provide that these funds must be made available for all children identified as having limited proficiency in the English language; and (8) support early literacy development by appropriating funding that aligns with the 2007-08 fiscal year teacher assistant funding formula, adjusted for inflation.

Part III.

Effective July 1, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.