GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1989

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1471

Short Title:  State Educational Equity Grants.	(Public)
─────────────────────────────────────── 
Sponsors: Senators Martin of Guilford; Ballance, Basnight, Block, Conder, Daniel, Guy, Harris, Hunt, Johnson of Wake, Lee, Martin of Pitt, Marvin, Odom, Plyler, Richardson, Speed, Tally, and Walker.
─────────────────────────────────────── 
Referred to:  Education.
─────────────────────────────────────── 

June 4, 1990

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A STATE EDUCATIONAL EQUITY GRANT PROGRAM.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article to read:
“ARTICLE 9A.
"Educational Equity Grant Program.
"§ 115C-150.1. Educational Equity Grant Program established; ‘children at risk' defined; purpose of Program; guidelines for the Program.
(a)	The General Assembly recognizes that children from low-income families are at greater risk of not achieving at the academic level of which they are capable or of not attaining an appropriate level of social and civic development during their public school years; therefore, in furtherance of the State's efforts to provide equal educational opportunities to North Carolina's children, there is established the State Educational Equity Grant Program.
(b)	As used in this Article, ‘children at risk' are children:
(1)	Who are between the ages of five and 17;
(2)	Who are eligible for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program; and
(3)	Whose academic performance and emotional and social development are adversely affected or likely to be adversely affected by poverty status alone, or by poverty status in combination with other factors that bear a relationship to the children's below-average academic performance.  Such other factors include race, gender, teenage parenthood, teenage pregnancy, migrant status, or handicapping conditions.
(c)	The State Educational Equity Grant Program shall provide grant funds to local school administrative units that serve high concentrations of children at risk.  These grants shall be used for the development and implementation of programs designed to improve the academic performance and social development of children at risk.
(d)	The State Board of Education shall establish guidelines for:
(1)	The submission, receipt, evaluation, and approval of grant proposals from local school administrative units;
(2)	The establishment of methods for determining academic performance, social development, and other factors related to the participation of children and schools in the Educational Equity Grant Program; and
(3)	The use of grant funds to establish or expand programs that provide for community volunteer activities that involve children at risk.
"§ 115C-150.2. Grant proposals.
(a)	To apply for an educational equity grant, a local school administrative unit shall include a grant proposal in the local school improvement plan it develops pursuant to G.S. 115C-238.3.  A local school administrative unit may receive an educational equity grant only if it has a local school improvement plan approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, pursuant to G.S. 115C-238.6.
(b)	To the extent reasonably possible, the local school administrative unit is encouraged to request, in its local school improvement plan submitted pursuant to G.S. 115C-238.3, the authority to use funds allocated to such unit for remediation programs, dropout prevention programs, and in-school suspension programs, to implement this Article.
(c)	The proposal shall contain a grant utilization plan that includes:
(1)	Specific goals to be achieved by each program or activity supported by grant funds;
(2)	A description of an outcome-oriented process to be used to measure progress being made by students, and to institute corrective actions to enhance student progress;
(3)	A description of an outcome-oriented process to be used to measure the extent to which program or activity goals have been achieved; and
(4)	A description of the continuing benefits, beyond the end of the grant period, resulting from the program and the activity goals having been achieved.
(d)	The proposal shall also contain a plan for using grant funds for the development and implementation of one or more of the following programs and activities:
(1)	Programs and activities designed to increase meaningful parents' understanding of, and involvement in, the development of their children's academic, social, and civic abilities and skills;
(2)	Programs or activities designed to assist parents of three- and four- year-old children, from families whose income is at or below the federal poverty level, in providing the kinds of learning and developmental activities that will enhance their children's chances of average or better than average academic performance and social development during their years in school;
(3)	Computer-assisted remediation and advancement materials for children at risk;
(4)	Programs or activities designed to achieve communication skills and mathematics mastery at or above grade level by children who are in grades three through eight who are performing at least one grade below the level at which they should be performing; the primary goals of such programs shall be (i) to improve mastery by at least 1.5 grade levels over the previous year, and (ii) to achieve at least grade level mastery upon completion of grades six and eight;
(5)	Programs designed to increase significantly the academic performance of identifiable groups of students who are performing below their capabilities and at lower than average academic levels than other children in their school district;
(6)	Programs and activities designed to (i) enhance students' abilities to apply analytical and interpretive skills and knowledge from history and the social sciences to the decision-making process and to the analysis of controversial issues, in order to understand the present and anticipate the future; (ii) respect differences among people and recognize and appreciate the pluralistic nature of United States society; (iii) understand other cultures of the world and their roles in international affairs; and (iv) understand the interrelationship between events that directly affect the students and those that are national and international in scope.  The focus of these programs and activities shall be on students in grades five through eight;
(7)	Incentives and support for teachers, particularly those working cooperatively or in teams but not excluding those working individually, who are willing to identify, explore, initiate, and use innovative instructional methodologies and instructional materials designed to build upon students' strengths, interests, and successes;
(8)	Programs and activities designed to have the distribution of minority students in each quartile level, with regard to testing and other measurable means of assessment of student performance, reflect the student population as a whole; and
(9)	Other programs and activities that could reasonably be inferred to fit within the purposes of this legislation.  Sole discretion regarding consideration and award of grants for these other programs and activities shall rest with the Superintendent of Public Instruction or a screening body the Superintendent designates.
(e)	The proposal may also include a plan for establishing or expanding programs that provide for community volunteer activities that involve children and youth at risk.  The goals of community volunteer programs shall include:
(1)	To encourage greater appreciation and awareness of the importance and benefit of volunteerism in the State;
(2)	To foster a better understanding of and appreciation for the needs and problems of other persons; and
(3)	To encourage participation in activities that are likely to achieve these goals.
Participation in volunteer programs may not be limited to children and youth at risk; provided, however, that guidelines, adopted by the State Board of Education pursuant to G.S. 115C-150.1(d), for using grant funds for community volunteer activities shall be aimed at encouraging participation by children and youth at risk in proportion to the percentage of the student body in their school or school system that children and youth at risk compose. These programs shall be designed to encourage participation by students in grades six through 12.
No more than ten percent (10%) of the funds a local school administrative unit receives for an educational equity grant may be used to establish or expand programs that provide for community volunteer activities that involve children and youth at risk.
"§ 115C-150.3. Grant eligibility requirements; duration and amount of grants; award of grants.
(a)	Local school administrative units shall be eligible to receive grants under the Program if:
(1)	At least twenty percent (20%) of the children aged five through 17 who live in the local school administrative unit are eligible for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program; or
(2)	At least thirty-five percent (35%) of the children who attend a school in the local school administrative unit are eligible for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program: Provided, however, no more than thirty-five percent (35%) of the grant funds available for a fiscal period may be awarded to local school administrative units that are eligible for grants pursuant to this subdivision.  If a local school administrative unit is eligible for a grant pursuant to this subdivision, the grant funds may be used only for programs and activities for schools at which at least thirty-five percent (35%) of the children are eligible for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program.
(b)	Grants shall be awarded for a period of one or two years.  The maximum amount of a grant shall be one hundred twenty thousand dollars ($120,000) for each year of the grant period.
(c)	The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall award the grants on the bases of need for the funds and of quality of the grant proposals.
"§ 115C-150.4.  Evaluation of use of grant funds.
At the end of each grant recipient's grant period, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall provide for an evaluation of the recipient school district's participation in the Program.  The evaluation shall include (i)	the degree to which the school district has implemented programs and utilized funds according to the district's approved utilization plans, and (ii) the extent to which the school district has achieved the goals set for the district and for individual schools.  The evaluation conducted by the State Board shall be considered by the Board in determining whether the school district shall be awarded subsequent grants under the Program.
"§ 115C-150.5.  Evaluation of Program; report to the General Assembly.
At the end of the first year of implementation of the Educational Equity Grants Program, and each year of implementation thereafter, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall provide for a formal evaluation of the impact of the Program and shall report the results of its evaluation to the General Assembly.
"§ 115C-150.6. Authority to contract with other agencies.
The Department of Public Instruction and grant recipients with approval from the Department, may contract with State institutions of higher education including those of the Department of Community Colleges, with private and independent colleges and universities, and with private nonprofit community organizations to plan, implement, or evaluate any part or parts of the State Educational Equity Grant Program that the Superintendent of Public Instruction deems appropriate."
Sec. 2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Education the sum of $10,000,000 for the 1990-91 fiscal year, to be used for the implementation of this act.  Not more than ten percent (10%) of the funds may be used for the administration of the Educational Equity Grants Program.
Sec. 3. To the extent reasonably possible, the State Board of Education shall utilize funds that would otherwise be allocated for remediation programs, drop-out prevention and in-school suspension programs, to implement this act.
Sec. 4. This act shall become effective July 1, 1990.