GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2013

SESSION LAW 2014-15

HOUSE BILL 1060

AN ACT to require the state board of education to identify military‑connected students using the uniform education reporting system, as recommended by the joint legislative education oversight committee.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑12(18) reads as rewritten:

"(18)    Duty to Develop and Implement a Uniform Education Reporting System, Which Shall Include Standards and Procedures for Collecting Fiscal and Personnel Information. –

a.         The State Board of Education shall adopt standards and procedures for local school administrative units to provide timely, accurate, and complete fiscal and personnel information, including payroll information, on all school personnel.

b.         The State Board of Education shall develop and implement a Uniform Education Reporting System that shall include requirements for collecting, processing, and reporting fiscal, personnel, and student data, by means of electronic transfer of data files from local computers to the State Computer Center through the State Communications Network.

c.         The State Board of Education shall comply with the provisions of G.S. 116‑11(10a) to plan and implement an exchange of information between the public schools and the institutions of higher education in the State. The State Board of Education shall require local boards of education to provide to the parents of children at a school all information except for confidential information received about that school from institutions of higher education pursuant to G.S. 116‑11(10a) and to make that information available to the general public.

d.         The State Board of Education shall modify the Uniform Education Reporting System to provide clear, accurate, and standard information on the use of funds at the unit and school level. The plan shall provide information that will enable the General Assembly to determine State, local, and federal expenditures for personnel at the unit and school level. The plan also shall allow the tracking of expenditures for textbooks, educational supplies and equipment, capital outlay, at‑risk students, and other purposes.

e.         When practicable, reporting requirements developed by the State Board of Education as part of the Uniform Education Reporting System under this subdivision shall be incorporated into the PowerSchool application or any other component of the Instructional Improvement System to minimize duplicative reporting by local school administrative units.

f. The State Board of Education shall develop a process for local school administrative units to annually identify enrolled military‑connected students using the Uniform Education Reporting System. The identification of military‑connected students shall not be used for the purposes of determining school achievement, growth, and performance scores as required by G.S. 115C‑12(9)c1. The identification of military‑connected students is not a public record within the meaning of G.S. 132‑1 and shall not be made public by any person, except as permitted under the provisions of the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act of 1974, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g. For purposes of this section, a "military‑connected student" means a student enrolled in a local school administrative unit who has a parent, step‑parent, sibling, or any other person who resides in the same household serving in the active or reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or National Guard."

SECTION 2.  G.S. 115C‑288(m) reads as rewritten:

"(m)      To Address the Unique Needs of Students With Immediate Family Members in the Military.Military‑Connected Students. – The principal shall develop a means for identifying and serving the unique needs of students who have immediate family members in the active or reserve components of the Armed Forces of the United States.identified as military‑connected students as required in G.S. 115C‑12(18)f."

SECTION 3. Section 2 of this act becomes effective July 1, 2015. The remainder of this act is effective when it becomes law, and the annual identification requirement for local school administrative units applies beginning with the 2015‑2016 school year. Local school administrative units may begin the annual identification of military‑connected students using the Uniform Education Reporting System beginning with the 2014‑2015 school year.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 17^th day of June, 2014.

                                                                    s/  Daniel J. Forest

                                                                         President of the Senate

                                                                    s/  Thom Tillis

                                                                         Speaker of the House of Representatives

                                                                    s/  Pat McCrory

                                                                         Governor

Approved 2:49 p.m. this 19^th day of June, 2014