A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT requiring the new hanover county board of education to study success centers and report to the joint legislative education oversight committee before implementing them in the new hanover county schools.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Before implementing success centers in New Hanover County, the New Hanover Board of Education shall complete the following:
(1)	Define success centers and establish guidelines and policies for assigning students to success centers.
(2)	Identify the strategies that will be used to improve student achievement and behavior.
(3)	Conduct a complete fact‑finding study of success centers. In the course of the study, the board shall consider:
a.	The success of similar facilities in and out of the State in improving the academic achievement and behavior of students assigned to the centers;
b.	The cost of operating such centers, including the cost of:
1.	Staffing the center with teachers who have at least four years' teaching experience and who have received an overall rating of at least above standard on a formal evaluation and are certified in the areas and grade levels being taught;
2.	Providing optimum learning environments, resources and materials that will ensure each student a sound, basic education as defined by the State Constitution;
3.	Providing support personnel, including school counselors, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other professionals to help students and their families work out complex issues and problems; and
4.	Maintaining safe and orderly learning environments.
SECTION 2.  The New Hanover County Board of Education shall not implement any success centers in the New Hanover County Schools until it has completed the study required by Section 1 of this act and filed the study with the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee.
SECTION 3.  The New Hanover County Board of Education shall report its objectives, findings. and any recommendations for implementing success centers to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee no later than August 1, 2005.
SECTION 4.  This act applies only to the New Hanover County School Administrative Unit.
SECTION 5.  Nothing in this act requires the North Carolina General Assembly to appropriate funds for the study or for the implementation of Success Centers.
SECTION 6.  This act is effective when it becomes law.