GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

S	1 

SENATE BILL 960

Short Title:  Adult-Student Ratio Reductions. 	(Public)

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Sponsors: Senator Hartsell.

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Referred to:  Appropriations.

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April 17, 1997

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO REDUCE THE ADULT-STUDENT RATIO IN KINDERGARTEN THROUGH THIRD GRADE.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to State Aid to Local School Administrative Units the sum of twenty-six million one hundred forty thousand four hundred seventy-one dollars ($26,140,471) for the 1997-98 fiscal year and the sum of twenty-six million one hundred forty thousand four hundred seventy-one dollars ($26,140,471) for the 1998-99 fiscal year to reduce the adult-student ratio in kindergarten through third grade to one teacher assistant and one teacher to 23 or fewer students.  The maximum allowable ratio of teacher assistants to students in kindergarten through third grade is one teacher assistant to 26 students.
Section 2.  G.S. 115C-301(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	Maximum Class Size. – The average class size for each grade span in a local school administrative unit shall at no time exceed the funded allotment ratio of teachers and teacher assistants to students.  At the end of the second school month and for the remainder of the school year, the size of an individual class shall not exceed the allotment ratio by more than three students.  At no time may the General Assembly appropriate funds for higher unit-wide class averages than those for which State funds were provided during the 1984-85 school year."
Section 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1997.