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The NC General Assembly has been in full swing this week, working to find solutions to some of the state s most pressing problems, like school reopening and extending unemployment benefits in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The legislature also has spent the week discussing bills that do not necessarily make the headlines but are very important for those that are affected. One bill, House Bill 53: Education Changes for Military-Connected Students, will make changes to ease the burden of active duty parents worrying about their child s education. Another bill, House Bill 136: Encourage Healthy NC Food in Schools, will help North Carolina farmers by putting muscadine grape juice in public school cafeterias. Most of these bills will pass overwhelmingly with little to no opposition, but they show how important state government can be.
Even as a bill to reopen schools across North Carolina garnered unanimous bipartisan support and was fast-tracked through the legislature, North Carolina’s teacher’s union released a statement blasting Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and lawmakers from both political parties for the compromise.
In a rare instance of bipartisan agreement, Cooper joined with both Republican and Democratic leaders in the N.C. House and Senate at a news conference Wednesday, March 10, to unveil a new school reopening plan for the entire state. Fewer than 24 hours later, Senate Bill 220 has won unanimous support from both chambers of the General Assembly a 49-0 vote in the Senate on Wednesday and a 119-0 vote in the House on Thursday. Cooper signed the bill into law later that day.
This story has been updated
Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday signed into law Senate Bill 220 requiring school districts to offer in-person instruction to K-12 students.
SB 220 (The Reopen Our Schools Act of 2021) was introduced by Republican and Democratic lawmakers Wednesday as a compromise to what had become a contentious, partisan disagreement over when and how to reopen schools for in-person instruction.
“Getting students back into the classroom safely is a shared priority, and this agreement will move more students to in-person instruction while retaining the ability to respond to local emergencies,” Cooper said in a statement late Thursday.
The law requires districts to provide in-person instruction for students in grades K-5 under the state’s Plan A, requiring minimal social distancing.
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