A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide for enrollment priority and procedures for certain students applying to charter schools.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑238.29F(g) reads as rewritten:
"(g)	Admission Requirements. –
(1)	Any child who is qualified under the laws of this State for admission to a public school is qualified for admission to a charter school.
(2)	No local board of education shall require any student enrolled in the local school administrative unit to attend a charter school.
(3)	Admission to a charter school shall not be determined according to the school attendance area in which a student resides, except that any local school administrative unit in which a public school converts to a charter school shall give admission preference to students who reside within the former attendance area of that school.
(4)	Admission to a charter school shall not be determined according to the local school administrative unit in which a student resides.
(5)	A charter school shall not discriminate against any student on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, gender, or disability. Except as otherwise provided by law or the mission of the school as set out in the charter, the school shall not limit admission to students on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, athletic ability, disability, race, creed, gender, national origin, religion, or ancestry. The charter school may give enrollment priority to (i) siblings of currently enrolled students who were admitted to the charter school in a previous year, (ii) siblings who are applying for admission to the charter school at the same time, and (iii) children of the school's employees. For the purposes of this subdivision, "siblings" includes half siblings and stepsiblings. In addition, and only for its first year of operation, the charter school may give enrollment priority to children of the initial members of the charter school's board of directors, so long as (i) these children are limited to no more than ten percent (10%) of the school's total enrollment or to 20 students, whichever is less, and (ii) the charter school is not a former public or private school. If a charter school does not provide enrollment priority to siblings applying for admission at the same time as authorized by this subdivision and a lottery is needed under G.S. 115C‑238.29F(g)(6), the charter school shall enter one surname into the lottery to represent all of the siblings applying at that same time. If that surname of the siblings is selected, then all of the siblings shall be admitted. Within one year after the charter school begins operation, the population of the school shall reasonably reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the general population residing within the local school administrative unit in which the school is located or the racial and ethnic composition of the special population that the school seeks to serve residing within the local school administrative unit in which the school is located. The school shall be subject to any court‑ordered desegregation plan in effect for the local school administrative unit.
(5a)	A charter school may give enrollment priority to a student who was enrolled in the charter school within the two previous school years but left the school to participate in extraordinary educational opportunities available to the student or because of the vocational opportunities of the student's parent.
(6)	During each period of enrollment, the charter school shall enroll an eligible student who submits a timely application, unless the number of applications exceeds the capacity of a program, class, grade level, or building. In this case, students shall be accepted by lot. Once enrolled, students are not required to reapply in subsequent enrollment periods.
(7)	Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, a charter school may refuse admission to any student who has been expelled or suspended from a public school under G.S. 115C‑390.5 through G.S. 115C‑390.11 until the period of suspension or expulsion has expired."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2013‑2014 school year.