NC leaders pass bill that would make school boards vote each month if they require masks
.JPG "Haylee Ferrell listens during LaSonja Cunninghams 7th grade ELA class on the first day of school at Wakefield Middle School in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, August 23, 2021.")
North Carolina school boards will have to vote monthly on whether to require face masks be worn under legislation approved by state lawmakers.
The General Assembly passed Aug. 25 a wide-ranging coronavirus bill for schools touching on things such as graduation requirements, grading of schools, driving privileges for students and use of remote instruction. One requirement mandates that those school boards that require masks must have monthly votes on whether to continue or modify the policy.
The requirement comes as 90 of the state’s 115 school districts have opted to require masking, at times over the objections of parents in their communities. In the past month, 37 school districts reversed their decision to go mask optional due to the surge in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant.
Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican who helped work on the compromise bill, said school masking policies should be constantly reviewed.
“Most boards meet once a month,” Torbett said Wednesday. “It gives them an opportunity to go look back and see what they want to state for the next coming month.
Senate Bill 654 unanimously passed in the Senate and had only one no vote in the House. Gov. Roy Cooper announced Aug. 30 he had signed the bill into law.
The legislation took four months to win final legislative approval as both the House and Senate worked to approve a compromise.
In June, the House included wording that would have delayed the use of controversial new social studies standards for a year. It’s not in the final bill, but language delaying the standards is also in the budget that the House adopted.
Driving rights restored
The bill provides help to teenagers whose ability to get driver’s permits and provisional licenses were hurt by the pandemic. The state ties academic performance to the license process for students.
The legislation temporarily waives the requirement that a student had to show they were making progress toward high school graduation to get a driving eligibility certificate.
The legislation also restores the permit or license of any person who lost it because they didn’t have a driving eligibility certificate. It would apply to revocations that occurred on or after March 1, 2020 to when the bill becomes law.
Waiving school performance grades
Here are some other provisions in the legislation:
▪ Waives the requirement that each public school get an A through F grade for their performance during the 2020-21 school year. The grades are largely based on student passing rates on state exams. The new results will be released at next week’s State Board of Education meeting.
▪ Permits schools to use remote instruction in the event of a COVID-19 emergency.
▪ Permits school districts and charter schools to offer remote instruction this school year.
▪ Waives the requirement that high school students who graduated last school year had to pass the CPR graduation requirement.
▪ Adds new wording in state law to cover the calendar used by some Wake County year-round schools. Wake school leaders say they need this permanent legislative fix to keep their 12 single-track year-round schools on track 4.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 6:43 PM with the headline "NC leaders pass bill that would make school boards vote each month if they require masks."
