We are visiting schools across North Carolina to learn more about innovative practices bubbling up from educators and classrooms. Today, please share Robert Kinlaw’s short documentary about our renewal school district. And please email me at [email protected] if you’ve got an innovative leader or practice you want on my radar! Today, I’ll be visiting Charlotte Lab School so follow along on Twitter @Mebane_Rash. Thank you all for your leadership.

And update from EdNC’s Alex Granados:

A number of bills received a favorable report in a House education committee today, including: 

A bill that would make learning about the Holocaust and genocide part of the standard course of study in North Carolina schools. 

A bill that would ensure public schools have resources available for students on child abuse and neglect.

A bill that would make some changes to the standards governing student conduct in state public schools.

A bill that would have the state Department of Public Instruction study changing the funding formula for children with disabilities so that those students with more severe disabilities would receive more money. The bill also increases the cap on the current funding formula from 12.75% to 13%.

A bill that would expand the state’s opportunity scholarship program also received a favorable vote in the committee. Rather than offering a fixed amount in the form of the scholarship, the change would fund students “up to seventy percent (70%) of the average State per pupil allocation in the prior fiscal year,” instead. That goes up to 80% in the 2023-24 school year. The bill also merges the Special Education Scholarship for Children with Disabilities and the Personal Education Savings Account and makes funding for the program mainly a percentage of average state per-pupil allocation. 

A bill that would allow state charter schools to operate all grade levels on Plan A — all students in person with minimal social distancing — was approved by a House rules committee yesterday and goes now to the full House. 

Gov. Roy Cooper held an update on COVID-19 yesterday, in which he loosened restrictions further on the state’s schools. The information below is from a press release from the governor’s office. 

“Schools should return to in-person instruction to the fullest extent possible while following all public health protocols in the StrongSchoolsNC Toolkit. This update aligns with Session Law 2021-4, which Governor Cooper and bipartisan legislative leadership worked on together. Plan A has already been widely adopted across the state as districts, educators and support staff have worked hard to get students back in the classroom. The updated Toolkit no longer requires schools to do daily temperature checks and symptom screenings. Safety protocols such as masks and cleaning of high traffic areas are still required. Schools are also highly encouraged to conduct free screening testing as recommended by the CDC. (Read the updated Toolkit)”

• RESOURCE | A Plan to Address Elementary Students’ Unfinished Learning in the Wake of Covid-19

  CAO Central | March 22, 2021

• Bill would let more NC families get taxpayer funding to attend private schools

  The News & Observer | March 23, 2021

• Lessons from a virtual school exemplar

  The Hechinger Report | March 17, 2021

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