GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2009
H D
HOUSE DRH70158-LE-184 (3/10)
Short Title: Change School Starting Date. |
(Public) |
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Sponsors: |
Representatives Luebke, M. Alexander, England, and Rapp (Primary Sponsors). |
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Referred to: |
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A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to change the school starting date for students.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 115C-84.2(d) reads as rewritten:
"(d) Opening and Closing
Dates. - Local boards of education shall determine the dates of opening and
closing the public schools under subdivision (a)(1) of this section. Except for
year-round schools, the opening date for students shall not be before August
25, and the second Monday in August; the closing date for students
shall not be after June 10. On a showing of good cause, the State Board of
Education may waive this requirement to the extent that school calendars are
able to provide sufficient days to accommodate anticipated makeup days due to
school closings. A local board may revise the scheduled closing date if
necessary in order to comply with the minimum requirements for instructional
days or instructional time. For purposes of this subsection, the term
"good cause" means that schools in any local school administrative
unit in a county have been closed eight days per year during any four of the
last 10 years because of severe weather conditions, energy shortages, power
failures, or other emergency situations.
The State Board also may waive this requirement for an educational purpose. The term "educational purpose" means a local school administrative unit establishes a need to adopt a different calendar for (i) a specific school to accommodate a special program offered generally to the student body of that school, (ii) a school that primarily serves a special population of students, or (iii) a defined program within a school. The State Board may grant the waiver for an educational purpose for that specific school or defined program to the extent that the State Board finds that the educational purpose is reasonable, the accommodation is necessary to accomplish the educational purpose, and the request is not an attempt to circumvent the opening and closing dates set forth in this subsection. The waiver requests for educational purposes shall not be used to accommodate system-wide class scheduling preferences.
The required opening and closing dates under this subsection shall not apply to any school that a local board designated as having a modified calendar for the 2003-2004 school year or to any school that was part of a planned program in the 2003-2004 school year for a system of modified calendar schools, so long as the school operates under a modified calendar."
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.