Revise, Study, and Fund LEP Allotment.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 167

Short Title: Revise, Study, and Fund LEP Allotment. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Meyer, Murdock, and Robinson (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
February 26, 2025
*S167-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO REVISE THE STUDENTS WITH LIMIT ED ENGLISH PROFICIEN CY 2
ALLOTMENT, TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO STUDY THE 3
STUDENTS WITH LIMITE D ENGLISH PROFICIENC Y ALLOTMENT, AND TO 4
APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO THE STUDENTS WITH L IMITED ENGLISH 5
PROFICIENCY ALLOTMENT. 6
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 7
SECTION 1.(a) For the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium, the State Board of Education 8
shall develop guidelines for identifying and providing services to students with limited 9
proficiency in the English language, as follows: 10
(1) The State Board of Education shall allocate these funds to local school 11
administrative units and to charter schools under a formula that takes into 12
account the average percentage of students in the units or the charters over the 13
past three years who have limited English proficiency. The State Board of 14
Education shall allocate funds to a unit or a charter school only if (i) average 15
daily membership of the unit or the charter school includes at least 20 students 16
with limited English proficiency or (ii) students with limited English 17
proficiency comprise at least two and one -half percent (2.5%) of the average 18
daily membership of the unit or charter school. For the portion of the funds 19
that is allocated on the basis of the number of identified students, the State 20
Board of Education shall not set a maximum number or percentage of 21
identified students for whom a unit or charter school may receive funds. 22
(2) Local school administrative units shall use funds allocated to them to pay for 23
classroom teachers, teacher assistants, tutors, textbooks, classroom 24
materials/instructional supplies/equipment, transportation costs, and staff 25
development of teachers for students with limited English proficiency. 26
(3) A county in which a local school administrative unit receives funds under this 27
section shall use the funds to supplement local current expense funds and shall 28
not supplant local current expense funds. 29
SECTION 1.(b) The Department of Public Instruction shall prepare a cu rrent head 30
count of the number of students classified with limited English proficiency by December 1 of 31
each year. Students in the head count shall be assessed at least once every three years to determine 32
their level of English proficiency. 33
SECTION 2. The State Board of Education shall study the allotment for students 34
with limited English proficiency (LEP), as enacted by Section 1 of this act. No later than 35
December 31, 2025, the State Board of Education shall report the results of its study to the Joint 36
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 167-First Edition
Legislative Education Oversight Committee and the Fiscal Research Division. The report shall 1
include, at a minimum, the following information: 2
(1) Whether the current LEP allotment is aligned with resources needed to ensure 3
that students with limited English proficiency have the opportunity to become 4
proficient in English. 5
(2) A recommended funding factor to be included in the LEP allotment to account 6
for the number of languages spoken by students in local school administrative 7
units and charter schools. 8
(3) A recommended plan to foster more bilingual education programs in the State. 9
(4) Recommended funding models, with associated costs, to eliminate any 10
achievement gap between students who are proficient in English and students 11
with limited English proficiency. 12
(5) An analysis of the effects of eliminating in the LEP allotment any 13
consideration of (i) the concentration of students with limited English 14
proficiency and (ii) a minimum eligibility threshold. The analysis should 15
include whether to eliminate any or all of these components of the LEP 16
allotment and proposed alternative metrics for allotting these funds. 17
SECTION 3. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of 18
Public Instruction the sum of sixteen million two hundred thousand dollar s ($16,200,000) in 19
recurring funds for the 2025 -2026 fiscal year to increase the students with limited English 20
proficiency allotment. 21
SECTION 4. This act becomes effective July 1, 2025. 22