Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that expands the state's private school voucher program.

Highlights:

• Requires the Department of Public Instruction to provide the State Education Assistance Authority the average State per-pupil allocation for that fiscal year to determine the maximum scholarship amount for eligible students to be awarded in the following fiscal year (Sec. 1.2.d.c).

• Classifies an “eligible student” as a student residing in North Carolina who has not yet received a high school diploma and who meets all of the following requirements (Sec. 2.1-3):

• A child who is the age of our on or before April 16 is eligible to attend the following school year if the principal, or equivalent, of the school in which the child seeks to enroll, finds that the student meets the requirements and those findings are submitted to the Authority with the child's application;

• Has not been enrolled in a postsecondary institution as a full-time student taking at least 12 hours of academic credit;

• Is a child with a disability; and

• Has not been placed in a nonpublic school or facility by a public agency at public expense.

• Authorizes an eligible student to be awarded scholarship funds in an amount of up to $17,000 for each school year only if the student has been determined to have one or more of the following disabilities as a primary or secondary disability on the student's eligibility determination form from the local education agency at the time of application for scholarship funds (Sec. 2.1.a.b-1):

• Autism;

• Hearing impairment;

• Moderate or severe intellectual or developmental disability;

• Multiple, permanent orthopedic impairments; and

• Visual impairment.

• Requires the local education agency to assess if the student continues to be a child with a disability and verify the outcome on a form to be provided to the Authority to determine if the student is still eligible to receive a scholarship (Sec. 2.1.a-115C-593).

• Requires the Authority to remit, at least two times each school year, scholarship funds from the personal education student account for eligible students who attend G.S. 115C-562.5 compliant schools (Sec. 2.1.a-115C-595).

• Requires the Authority to report annually, no later than October 15, to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on the following information from the prior school year (Sec. 2.1.a-115C-598):

• The total number, grade level, race, ethnicity, and sex of eligible students receiving scholarship funds.

• The total amount of scholarship funding awarded.

• The number of students previously enrolled in public schools in the prior semester by the previously attended local education agency.

• Nonpublic schools in which scholarship recipients are enrolled, including numbers of scholarship recipients at each nonpublic school.

• The number of substantiated cases of fraud by recipients and the number of parents or students removed from the program for noncompliance with the provisions of this Article.

• Appropriates $1,000,000 each fiscal year to the Reserve for 10 years for the Personal Education Student Accounts for Children with Disabilities Program (Sec. 2.1.a-115C-600.b).

• Authorizes each county to appropriate funds to provide an amount of up to $1,000 per child residing in the county who meets all of the following requirements to supplement a qualifying child's scholarship (Sec. 3.2.b):

• The child has been awarded a K-12 scholarship for the school year.

• The child is enrolled in a nonpublic school located within the county for the school year.

Full Bill Text