New school safety reforms advancing peer-to-peer student support programs, facility vulnerability assessments, and resource officer training programs unanimously passed the North Carolina House of Representatives yesterday. House Bill 938 contains recommendations of the state House Select Committee on School Safety to improve classroom security and protect students. All schools with grades six or higher, and […]
Four months after being overwhelmingly passed in the House, the Restore Campus Free Speech Act has become law. House Bill 527 is bipartisan ‘campus free speech’ legislation that strengthens standards for free expression in our state university system and mandates that all public universities “ensure the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression.” HB527 […]
Bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly passed the General Assembly last month that takes steps to fix the ongoing challenges in North Carolina’s child welfare system. It was signed into law on June 21. “Rylan’s Law” (House Bill 630) was named after Rylan Ott, a Moore County toddler who drowned in a pond after he was put back […]
A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the House to directly help victims of human trafficking and to establish a pilot program to educate students and law enforcement officers on ways to recognize the signs of trafficking activity. Human trafficking is the illegal practice of buying and selling people for the purposes of their forced […]
Support to ‘raise the age’ crosses ideological, partisan lines At press conference, Chief Justice Martin says Tar Heel State would save tax dollars and reduce repeat offenses if older teens were handled by juvenile justice system North Carolina is now the nation’s only state charging 16- and 17-year-old delinquents as adults and needs to catch […]
Bipartisan legislation passed the House on Wednesday strengthening standards for free expression in the state university system and mandating that all public universities “ensure the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression.” Currently, there are no statutes addressing free speech for the University of North Carolina (UNC) institutions. House Bill 527, modeled after the Goldwater Institute‘s policy report Campus […]
Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House to help save the lives of people who use public swimming pools in North Carolina. House Bill 598 mandates that a special circuit breaker device be installed on any line that provides power to a pool’s pump motor. This device is known as a ground fault circuit interrupter. […]
An effort by lawmakers to allow local school boards some flexibility in setting their school calendars received overwhelming support from House members earlier this week, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 108 to 6. House Bill 375 allows a school board to schedule its school opening date to coincide with the opening date of an […]
Ahead of National Crime Victim Rights Week, the House passed the “Kelsey Smith Act” this afternoon by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 113-5. House Bill 315 allows law enforcement officials to access a cell phone’s tracking technology to quickly locate a missing person in an emergency situation and the legislation shields cell phone service providers from prosecution for potential privacy violations while […]
Yesterday, legislation was introduced in the House co-sponsored by Representative Szoka that seeks to reform the way that juvenile offenders are treated under the state’s criminal justice system. House Bill 280, The Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act (colloquially known as the “Raise the Age Bill”) raises the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 16 to 18 years for children […]