NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1963 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 990

SENATE BILL 534

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND SUBCHAPTER IX OF CHAPTER 115 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES OF NORTH CAROLINA RELATING TO THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS RESIDING WITHIN A MUNICIPALITY ASSIGNED TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS WITHIN THE SAME MUNICIPALITY.

 

WHEREAS, the North Carolina State Board of Education now allocates funds for the purpose of providing transportation to the pupils enrolled in the public schools within this State when such pupils

(a)        reside outside municipalities and attend schools located outside municipalities; or

(b)        reside outside municipalities and attend schools located inside municipalities; or

(c)        reside inside municipalities and attend schools located outside municipalities; or

(d)        reside in territory annexed by a municipality after February 6, 1957, and attend schools within the same municipality, when transportation was provided in such area prior to annexation; or

(e)        reside in one municipality but attend schools in another municipality; and

WHEREAS, the North Carolina State Board of Education does not allocate funds for transporting children who live within a municipality and attend public schools within the same municipality except as hereinabove set forth; and

WHEREAS, in recent years there has been a substantial expansion of the territory encompassed by our cities and towns through annexation thereby causing many pupils residing within a municipality and assigned to schools within the same municipality to travel great distances often in excess of five miles, without benefit of public school transportation, all to the great detriment and hardship of many citizens of our State; and

WHEREAS, all funds appropriated from time to time by the General Assembly for the purpose of providing transportation to the pupils enrolled in the public schools within this State should be allocated by the North Carolina State Board of Education without regard to the location or existence of any municipal boundary line: Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  Chapter 115 of the General Statutes is amended by the addition of a new Section immediately following G.S. 115-181, to be designated G.S. 115-181.1 and to read as follows:

"§ 115-181.1.  Municipal Corporate Limits to Have no Bearing on Eligibility for School Transportation. This subchapter shall be construed to place upon the State, the State Board of Education in its use of funds appropriated by the State for school transportation, and any county or city administrative unit which elects to provide school transportation, the same duty to supply funds for the transportation of pupils who live within the corporate limits of a municipality in which is located a public school in which such pupils are enrolled or assigned as that required for transportation to or from school of any other pupils residing within the county or city administrative unit. Provided, however, that as to transportation supplied hereunder to pupils whose place of residence and school are both located within the same municipality, any county or city administrative unit electing to proceed under the provisions of this subchapter shall ascertain whether as of the time of such election there is a franchised public carrier within such municipality willing and able to provide such transportation, and if there is, then said administrative unit may contract for transportation of such pupils by one or more of such carriers, subject to existing control of services and rates by the governing body of the municipality and the North Carolina Utilities Commission."

Sec. 2.  G.S. 115-186(b) is rewritten to read as follows:

"Unless road or other conditions shall make it unadvisable to do so, public school buses shall be routed on State and municipality-maintained streets and roads so that the school bus to which each pupil is assigned shall pass within one mile of the residence of each such pupil who lives one and one-half miles or more from the school to which enrolled or assigned, without regard to whether or not such pupil's residence and assigned school are located within the corporate limits of the same municipality."

Sec. 3.  G.S. 115-186(e) is deleted in its entirety.

Sec. 4.  G.S. 115-190.1 is deleted in its entirety.

Sec. 5.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 6.  The provisions of this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after July 1, 1965.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 19th day of June, 1963.