AN ACT to require the involvement of a parent or guardian before school officials may administer corporal punishment on a student.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑391(a)(5) reads as rewritten:
"(5)	 Corporal punishment shall not be administered on a student whose parent or guardian has stated in writing that corporal punishment shall not be administered to that student. Parents and guardians shall be given a form to make such an election at the beginning of the school year or when the student first enters the school during the year.  The form shall advise the parent or guardian that the student may be subject to suspension, among other possible punishments, for offenses that would otherwise not require suspension if corporal punishment were available.  If the parent or guardian does not return the form, corporal punishment may be administered on the student."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2011‑2012 school year.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 17th day of June, 2011.

	_____________________________________
		 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	_____________________________________
		 Thom Tillis
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2011