A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA, INC., PROGRAMS AND SERVICES and TO PLACE NO FEWER THAN fifty GRADUATION COACHES IN ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE, OR HIGH SCHOOLS AND FOR STARTUP FUNDING FOR UP TO THREE PERFORMANCE LEARNING CENTERS OR INNOVATIVE HIGH SCHOOLS.
Whereas, research has shown that a high school dropout can have a significant negative impact on the state's economy as determined by the loss of generated income tax revenue, dependence on government aid, as well as elevated risks for incarceration and that the North Carolina 2012 cohort graduation rate of eighty and two-tenths percent (80.2%) still falls below North Carolina's goal for students to graduate on time with a high school diploma; and
Whereas, in 1989, Governor James Martin's Business Committee on Education recognized that it was in the best interest of North Carolina's economy, workforce development, and public safety to invest in preventative, proactive dropout prevention interventions such as those offered by Communities In Schools of North Carolina, Inc.; and
Whereas, even though Communities In Schools of North Carolina served more than 180,730 North Carolina students with a corresponding stay‑in‑school rate of ninety-nine percent (99%) in the 2011‑2012 school year, Communities In Schools' programs and services do not yet benefit all areas of North Carolina in 2013; and
Whereas, a five‑year, independent study conducted by ICF International, the largest and most comprehensive ever conducted, has established that Communities In Schools is the most effective dropout prevention program in America. The study found that implementing the CIS model resulted in the strongest reduction in dropout rates of any existing fully scaled dropout prevention program that has been evaluated and that Communities In Schools is unique in having an effect on both reducing dropout rates and increasing graduation rates; and
Whereas, it is in the best interest of North Carolina's economic future to address workforce development to the fullest extent possible by aggressively addressing the need to improve the high school graduation rate; Now, therefore,
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 three million seven hundred thirty‑one thousand nine hundred twenty-seven dollars ($3,731,927) for the 2013‑2014 fiscal year and the sum of three million seven hundred thirty‑one thousand nine hundred twenty-seven dollars ($3,731,927) for the 2014‑2015 fiscal year in recurring funds to support and expand the programs and services of Communities In Schools of North Carolina, Inc., a public and private partnership that addresses the multiple needs of students at the greatest risk of dropping out of school. Communities In Schools of North Carolina, Inc., shall use the funds to leverage federal and private grants to support local Communities In Schools programs throughout the State and to place no fewer than 50 graduation coaches in elementary, middle, or high schools. When placing graduation coaches, Communities In Schools of North Carolina, Inc., shall give priority to schools or Local Education Agencies (LEAs) that have either (i) a four‑year cohort graduation rate of less than eighty and two-tenths percent (80.2%) in the most recent school year and one of two prior school years or (ii) a performance composite under sixty‑five percent (65%).
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to Communities In Schools of North Carolina, Inc., a nonprofit organization, the sum of one million thirty-five thousand dollars ($1,035,000) for the 2013‑2014 fiscal year in nonrecurring start-up funds to open a minimum of three additional Performance Learning Centers (PLCs) or innovative high schools across North Carolina over the next three years. The funds must be expended by the end of the 2015‑2016 school year.
SECTION 3.  Communities In Schools of North Carolina, Inc., shall report on the activities of graduation coaches and the progress of development of the additional Performance Learning Centers or innovative high schools to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by October 15, 2014, and annually thereafter.
SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2013.