Cooper signs law that says school boards must vote each month if they require face masks
North Carolina school boards will have to vote monthly if they want to continue requiring face masks, under a new law signed Monday by Governor Roy Cooper.
Cooper announced Monday he had signed a wide-ranging coronavirus bill for schools that touches on things such as graduation requirements, grading of schools, driving privileges for students and use of remote instruction. The new law also ensures that those school boards that mandate masking have to continue approving the requirement each month.
The requirement comes as 104 of the state’s 115 school districts have opted to require masking, as of Aug. 31. In the past month, 51 school districts reversed their decision to go mask optional due to the surge in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant.
Virtual instruction allowed
The new law will allow all of the state’s public schools to offer virtual instruction this school year. Lawmakers had cited how schools might need to go remote due to the surge in cases.
Under the law, school districts and charter schools can also switch individual classes and schools to remote instruction due to a COVID-19 emergency. Two small districts in the western part of the state are temporarily switching from in-person classes to remote instruction.
The law is particularly welcomed by families who’ve been lobbying charter schools to offer a remote option like they had last school year. Charter school leaders said they couldn’t provide the option unless state law was changed.
Driving rights restored
The law 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 law 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.
No school performance grades this year
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 test results will be released Wednesday.
The law does not impact the individual grades that schools give to students.
▪ 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 30, 2021 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Cooper signs law that says school boards must vote each month if they require face masks."
