DPI Disaster Preparedness Fund.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 1
HOUSE BILL 665

Short Title: DPI Disaster Preparedness Fund. (Public)
Sponsors: Representatives Greenfield, Ager, G. Brown, and Butler (Primary Sponsors).
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to: Appropriations, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
April 3, 2025
*H665-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS FUND. 2
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 3
SECTION 1. Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new 4
Article to read: 5
"Article 38D. 6
"Public School Disaster Preparedness. 7
"§ 115C-546.50. Fund created; administration. 8
(a) There is created the Public School Disaster Preparedness Fund. The Fund shall be 9
administered by the Department of Public Instruction and shall be used to provide funds to 10
schools in areas at high risk of experiencing natural disasters to improve or replace existing 11
school structures in an effort to mi tigate the damage to those structures from future weather 12
events. 13
(b) This Fund shall be a nonreverting special revenue fund consisting of any monies 14
appropriated to it by the General Assembly. 15
"§ 115C-546.51. Fund disbursements; allowable uses. 16
(a) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules to determine the disbursement of the 17
Public School Disaster Preparedness Fund. At a minimum, the rules shall include: 18
(1) The system that will be relied upon to determine the level of risk in an area. 19
(2) A template for local school administrative units to use to develop disaster 20
preparedness plans. As used in this section, a "disaster preparedness plan" is 21
the plan in which a local school administrative unit identifies the structures 22
that will be improved or replaced, the risk posed to those struc tures, and the 23
plan to improve or replace the structure. 24
(3) The standard of increased preparedness schools are intended to achieve with 25
disaster preparedness funds. 26
(4) The system by which the State Board of Education will evaluate a school's 27
disaster preparedness plan. 28
(b) The Department of Public Instruction shal l develop and publish an application 29
through which local school administrative units may apply to receive a distribution from the 30
Public School Disaster Preparedness Fund. At a minimum, the application shall require local 31
school administrative units to provide a copy of the disa ster preparedness plan and an estimate 32
of the cost of the plan. 33
(c) The Department shall accept applications on a rolling basis . Once received, the 34
application shall be evaluated by the School Planning Section and the School P lanning Section 35
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 665-First Edition
shall present the application with a recommendation on whether the application meets the goals 1
set by the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education shall then vote to approve or 2
reject the application at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the State Board of Education. If 3
the application is approved by unanimous vote of the State Board of Education , then the 4
Department shall disburse the amount of funding approved by the State Board of Education to 5
the approved local school administrative unit. 6
"§ 115C-546.52. Reporting requirements. 7
(a) No later than December 15 of each year that a local school administrative unit is in 8
receipt of a disbursement from the Public School Disaster Preparedness Fund , the local school 9
administrative unit shall provide the Department of Public Instruction a report on any funds that 10
have been expended or committed, the remaining balance of funds available, and a detailed report 11
of the progress made toward completing the disaster preparedness plan. 12
(b) No later than February 15 of each year , the Department of Public Instruction shall 13
report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on any disbursements made from 14
the Fund, including the local school administrative unit that received the funds and the amount 15
received, a copy of any disaster preparedness plans currently being funded, a progress report on 16
any disaster preparedness plans being carried out, and an overview of completed disaster 17
preparedness plans." 18
SECTION 2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of 19
Public Instruction the sum of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for 20
the 2025-2026 fiscal year to establish and administer the Public School Disaster P reparedness 21
Fund under Article 38D of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes, as enacted by this act. 22
SECTION 3. This act becomes effective July 1, 2025. 23