A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to encourage students to stay in school.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of six million five hundred thousand dollars ($6,500,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year and the sum of six million five hundred thousand dollars ($6,500,000) for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year for a grant program to encourage students to stay in school. The State Board of Education shall develop guidelines for the grant program.
The State Board of Education shall identify the high schools with the highest dropout rates in the State.  A local school administrative unit in which one or more of the identified high schools is located may submit a plan to address the dropout rate in its identified schools and apply for a grant to implement the plan.
The State Board of Education shall report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by April 15, 2008, and by January 1, 2009, on how grant recipients used the funds to lower dropout rates.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.