A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to establish the smart school bus safety pilot program.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Pilot Program; Purpose. – The Department of Public Instruction shall establish the Smart School Bus Safety Pilot Program (Program), beginning with the 2020‑2021 school year and ending no later than December 31, 2022. The purpose of the Program is to transform and improve the transportation of public school students through technology.
SECTION 2.  Participation. – As part of the Program, participating local school administrative units shall identify and contract with qualifying vendors to provide technology and services for school buses in accordance with Section 3 of this act. The following local school administrative units are authorized to participate in the Program, subject to the requirements of this act: Johnston County Schools and Wayne County Public Schools. Any local board of education of a local school administrative unit authorized to participate in the Program may elect not to participate. For each local school administrative unit that elects not to participate in the Program, the Department may authorize one replacement local school administrative unit to participate in the Program.
SECTION 3.  Technology and Services. – Qualifying vendors shall provide technology and services for school buses to participating local school administrative units. Participating units shall have discretion over the specific technology and services provided as long as the technology and services meet the following minimum requirements:
(1)	Improve overall communications and reporting on school buses.
(2)	Include automated school bus safety cameras, as defined in G.S. 115C‑242.1, and on‑board integration with those cameras.
(3)	Enable employee time tracking and student ridership tracking.
(4)	Enable global positioning system (GPS) tracking of school buses.
(5)	Enable turn‑by‑turn navigation along bus routes.
(6)	Provide pre‑ and post‑trip vehicle inspections.
SECTION 4.  Requirements and Contingencies. – The following requirements and contingencies shall apply to each participating local school administrative unit:
(1)	Every school bus in a participating local school administrative unit designed for the transportation of children with disabilities shall be outfitted with technology provided pursuant to the Program.
(2)	At the conclusion of the Program, all hardware provided to a participating local school administrative unit shall become the property of the unit.
SECTION 5.  Reports. – No later than November 1, 2021, and March 1, 2022, the Department of Public Instruction, in consultation with each participating local school administrative unit, shall report at least all the following information to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee, any committee constituted by the House of Representatives or Senate to address school safety, and the Fiscal Research Division:
(1)	An itemized breakdown of software infrastructure, hardware infrastructure, and equipment provided by qualifying vendors to participating local school administrative units pursuant to the Program.
(2)	A description of all services provided by qualifying vendors to participating local school administrative units pursuant to the Program.
(3)	A list of qualifying vendors contracting with participating local school administrative units pursuant to the Program.
(4)	The impact and effectiveness of the Program.
(5)	All expenditures of State funds pursuant to the Program.
SECTION 6.(a)  Appropriation. – There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of one million four hundred thousand dollars ($1,400,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2020‑2021 fiscal year to implement the Program. The Department shall allocate the funds among participating local school administrative units based on the average number of students transported in the 2019‑2020 school year prior to the closure of schools for in‑person instruction on March 16, 2020.
SECTION 6.(b)  State Budget Act Applies. – The provisions of the State Budget Act, Chapter 143C of the General Statutes, are reenacted and shall remain in full force and effect and are incorporated in this act by reference.
SECTION 6.(c)  Additional Limitations and Directions. – Except where expressly repealed or amended by this act, the provisions of any other legislation enacted during the 2019 Regular Session of the General Assembly expressly appropriating funds to an agency, a department, or an institution covered under this act, shall remain in effect.
SECTION 6.(d)  Applicability of House Bill 966, 2019 Regular Session. – If House Bill 966, 2019 Regular Session, becomes law, and any provision of that act or a provision of the Committee Report described in Section 42.2 of that act conflicts with this act, this act shall control.
SECTION 7.  Effective Date. – This act becomes effective July 1, 2020.