A Look at NC's New Covid Educational Requirements

Schools across the state began class on Monday, August 23rd under a new set of Covid-19 precautions outlined by Governor Roy Cooper. Source: AP

The fractious national debate about COVID-19 has perhaps been most divisive on issues related to schools and education. In North Carolina, however, this debate was surprisingly tame. On August 30th, Governor Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 654 into law, a bipartisan bill that delegates the authority to make COVID-related policy decisions to local school boards and permits schools to temporarily transition to online learning, if necessary.  

Senate Bill 654, titled “An Act to Provide Relief To Public Schools in Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic,” addresses a wide range of potential COVID-related issues, as well as many less controversial educational matters. Part IV of the law allows schools to transfer “individual schools or individual classrooms” to remote instruction in the case of necessary quarantines due to widespread COVID infection, provided that remote learners “return to in-person instruction as soon as personnel are available or the required quarantines are complete.” Schools can provide completely virtual instruction to students with the consent of the student’s parent or legal guardian and approval of a virtual learning plan by the state department of public instruction. Part X holds that all local school boards must adopt a face-covering policy in their district, though the contents of the policy are at the board’s discretion. School boards are required to vote to maintain or modify their face-covering policy at least once a month. Other provisions of the bill address more routine aspects of public education. A final section aids students in getting their drivers’ licenses during the pandemic by loosening requirements on driving eligibility certificates from schools.  

Despite tackling contentious issues, the bill, a product of extensive negotiations between the different chambers of the assembly, passed unanimously in the state Senate and with a single dissenting vote in the House, from Representative Terrence Everitt of Wake County. The governor’s office gave no comments or press releases about the bill. Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican and chair of the House Education Committee, praised the bill and justified the face-covering provision, saying, “Most boards meet once a month. It gives them an opportunity to go look back and see what they want to state for the next coming month.” 

The most controversial provision of the bill did not relate to COVID, but instead concerned a social studies curriculum debate ongoing across the nation. That section of the bill would have delayed the implementation of a controversial set of curriculum standards, some regarding issues of racism and oppression in the United States’ history, that many conservatives feel portrays the United States in an overly negative light. However, that section was struck from the final bill in order to secure bipartisan support.

This bill finally became law after making its way through the North Carolina legislative process, in which representatives and senators introduce bills that are then referred to committees with jurisdictional authority relevant to the bill’s topic. After a review, markup, and a favorable vote by the committee, the bill is sent to the floor to be voted on by the entire chamber. As required by the state constitution, the bill is read twice more by the presiding officer (an initial reading occurs when the bill is referred to a committee), debated, and ultimately voted on by the entirety of the body. The process repeats in the opposite chamber and goes to a conference committee if the House and Senate pass different versions of the same bill. If an agreement is reached in the conference committee, the entirety of the general assembly votes on whether or not to accept the conference report. If a majority does accept the report, the bill is sent to the governor who decides whether or not to sign the bill or veto it.  

After a conference committee report and a long negotiation SB 654 was signed into law by Governor Cooper. This bill will provide schools with the flexibility needed to accommodate local needs and spared North Carolina the messy fight over COVID in schools that has plagued other states.