Safe Schools Transparency Act.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 628

Short Title: Safe Schools Transparency Act. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Bradley, Salvador, and Everitt (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
March 26, 2025
*S628-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO REQUIRE PA RENTAL NOTIFICATION OF SCHOOL THREATS AN D 2
SAFETY PLANS, TO CREATE PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO NOTIFY PARENTS OF 3
SCHOOL THREATS, TO R EINSTATE THE TASK FO RCE FOR SAFER SCHOOL S, 4
AND TO ESTABLISH THE SCHOOL SAFETY FUND. 5
Whereas, North Carolina schools have faced an increase in threats, including the 6
recent case in Charlotte, where a suspect was arrested for allegedly threatening to harm students 7
and staff at multiple schools; and 8
Whereas, parents are not consistently informed about threats to school safety, which 9
prevents them from taking necessary precautions to protect their children; and 10
Whereas, building on Senate Bill 74 (2023), this act establishes a parent's right to be 11
notified of any credible threats against their child, their child's school, or the local school district; 12
and 13
Whereas, schools must transparently communicate with parents and guardians while 14
ensuring law enforcement can respond effectively to threats; Now, therefore, 15
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 16
17
PART I. REQUIRE PARE NTAL NOTIFICATION OF SCHOOL THREATS AND 18
SAFETY PLANS 19
SECTION 1. Article 7B of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended by 20
adding a new Part to read: 21
"Part 7. School Safety Transparency. 22
"§ 115C-77.1. Mandatory notification of threats. 23
(a) Required Notices. – The parent or legal guardian of a student enrolled in a public 24
school shall be immediately notified of any credible threat that meets any of the following 25
criteria: 26
(1) Targets the parent or guardian 's child, including threats of violence and 27
bullying. 28
(2) Targets the student body, faculty, or school campus, including planned attacks 29
and bomb threats. 30
(3) Involves a student bringing a weapon to school or a student causing other 31
security risks. 32
(4) Requires law enforcement intervention, including a lockdown or evacuation. 33
(b) Notice Policy. – The governing body of a public school unit shall adopt a policy for 34
the provision of notices required under this section. At a minimum , the policy shall do the 35
following: 36
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 628-First Edition
(1) Identify the school employees or administrators responsible for providing the 1
notices required by this section. 2
(2) Define high-level emergency. 3
(c) Means of Notice. – Notifications required under this section shall be made by text 4
message, email, phone call, or by posting an update on the school 's website. Each notification 5
must be made through at least two different means. For high-level emergencies, one of the two 6
notices must be by phone call. 7
(d) Notice Contents. – Notifications made pursuant to this section shall include details of 8
the threat, including actions taken and school response. Updates shall be provided as new 9
information becomes available. 10
(e) Notice Timing. – A school must provide initial notification wi thin one hour of law 11
enforcement confirmation of a credible threat, unless threat notification interferes with an active 12
law enforcement investigation in which case notice shall occur one hour after arrest or resolution 13
of investigation as determined by law enforcement. 14
"§ 115C-77.2. Failure to notify. 15
(a) Filing Complaint. – The parent of a student who is enrolled in a public school who 16
alleges that the student 's school failed to notify the parent of a threat as required by 17
G.S. 115C-77.1 may file a complaint with the Department of Public Instruction. 18
(b) Investigation. – Upon receiving a complaint that a school has violated 19
G.S. 115C-77.1, the Department shall forward the complaint to the Center for Safer Schools, and 20
the Center for Safer Schools shall conduct an investigation to determine whether a school abided 21
by the school's notification policy. 22
(c) Report. – No later than 60 days from the date the Center for Safer Schools receives 23
the complaint, the Center sha ll report the findings of the investigation to the Superintendent of 24
Public Instruction and the State Board of Education. The State Board shall schedule consideration 25
of the report no later than the next regular meeting occurring more than five days after submission 26
of the report. 27
(d) State Board Findings; Penalty. – If the State Board of Education, by a majority vote, 28
finds that a school has not complied with the notice requirements of G.S. 115C-77.1, the State 29
Board shall instruct the Department to reduce the public school unit 's central office 30
administration allotment by up to five thousand dollars ($5,000) and transfer the funds to the 31
School Security Fund. 32
(e) Repeated Failure to Notify. – If the State Board of Education finds that a school has 33
failed to comply with the notice requirements of G.S. 115C-77.1 for more than one threat, then 34
the State Board may do any of the following: 35
(1) Issue a corrective action plan for the public school unit. 36
(2) Require additional mandatory training for public school unit administrators. 37
(3) Withhold additional administrative funds from the central office 38
administration allotment. 39
(f) Administrative Penalties for Administrators. – If during the review of an investigation 40
of an alleged violation of G.S. 115C-77.1 the State Board of Education finds that specific school 41
administrators were responsible for the violation, the State Board may do any of the following 42
for those administrators specifically: 43
(1) Issue a written reprimand and performance review. 44
(2) Require the administrator to attend additional school safety training. 45
(3) If the administrator has been identified as being involved in a violation of 46
G.S. 115C-77.1 for more than one threat , order the public school unit to end 47
the employment of the administrator. 48
(g) A school administrator that knowingly conceals a credible threat from the parent of a 49
student that attends the scho ol where the threat occurred may be charged with a Class A1 50
misdemeanor for endangering students if the threat results in injury. 51
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Senate Bill 628-First Edition Page 3
(h) If the State Board takes action under this section, the State Board of Education shall 1
report the action to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee within 60 days of the 2
action. The General Assembly shall c onsider, no later than the next session of the General 3
Assembly, the future governance of the identified public school unit. 4
"§ 115C-77.3. Annual school safety report and policies. 5
(a) The governing body of a public school unit shall ensure that each school within the 6
school unit publishes an annual school safety report on its website and shall notify parents of the 7
availability of the report. 8
(b) The annual school safety report shall include at least the following: 9
(1) The number of threats, lockdowns, and evacuations in the prior year. 10
(2) Status of school security enhancements and equipment, including security 11
cameras and Student Resource Officers. 12
(3) Summary of school safety policies and response procedures. 13
(c) The governing body of a public school unit shall ensure that each school within the 14
school unit publishes its school safety policies on its website and shall notify parents of the 15
availability of the policies. 16
(d) The website shall include the following school safety policies: 17
(1) Emergency response plans, except a school may exclude sensitive security 18
details. 19
(2) Student safety policies, including procedures for handling threats. 20
(3) Available mental health and counseling resources for at-risk students. 21
"§ 115C-77.4. Reporting of annual school safety reports. 22
(a) The governing body of each public school unit shall provide a copy of the annua l 23
school safety report required under G.S. 115C-77.3 to the Department of Public Instruction no 24
later than December 1 of each year. 25
(b) The Department shall report to the Joint Legisative Education Oversight Committee 26
no later than February 1 of each year , including a summary of the reports received pursuant to 27
this section and on the rate of compliance with the notification requirements in G.S. 115C-77.1." 28
29
PART II. REINSTATE TASK FORCE FOR SAFER SCHOOLS 30
SECTION 2.(a) G.S. 115C-105.55 is reenacted as it existed immediately prior to its 31
repeal. 32
SECTION 2.(b) G.S. 115C-105.56 is reenacted as it existed immediately prior to its 33
repeal. 34
SECTION 2.(c) G.S. 115C-105.56, as reenacted by this act, reads as rewritten: 35
"§ 115C-105.56. Task Force for Safer Schools; powers and duties. 36
The Task Force shall have all of the following duties: 37
(1) To serve as an advisory board to the Center for Safer Schools. 38
(2) To provide guidance and recommendations to the Governor, Superintendent 39
of Public Instruction, and the General Assembly to improve statewide policy 40
to enhance statewide and local capacities to create safer schools. 41
(3) To encourage interagency collaboration among State and local government 42
agencies to achieve effective policies and streamline efforts to create safer 43
schools. 44
(4) To Assist the Center for Safer Schools in collecting and d isseminating 45
information on recommended best practices and community needs related to 46
creating safer schools in North Carolina. 47
(5) Other duties as assigned by the State Board of Education. 48
(6) To collect and analyze data to monitor public school unit comp liance with 49
G.S. 115C-77.1." 50
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SECTION 2.(d) The members of the Task Force for Safer Schools at the time of its 1
dissolution shall be offered to return to the Task Force to serve an amount of time equivalent to 2
the amount of time that remained on that member's term at the time the Task Force was dissolved. 3
If a member chooses not to return to the Task Force, the resultant vacancy shall be filled by the 4
original appointing authority. 5
6
PART III. ESTABLISH SCHOOL SECURITY FUND 7
SECTION 3.(a) Part 3 of Article 8C of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is 8
amended by adding a new section to read: 9
"§ 115C-105.70. School Safety Fund. 10
(a) There is established under the control and direction of the State Board of Education 11
the School Safety Fund. This fund shall be a nonreverting special revenue fund consisting of any 12
monies appropriated to it by the General Assembly and any monies credited to it under 13
G.S. 115C-77.2 for failure to comply with G.S. 115C-77.1. 14
(b) Funds in the School Safety Fund shall be allocated to local school administrative units 15
on the basis of average daily membership. 16
(c) Public school units may use funds received pursuant to this section for any of the 17
following purposes: 18
(1) For the public school unit to provide or contract to provide servic es for 19
students in crisis, including any of the following: 20
a. Crisis respite services for parents or guardians of an individual student 21
to prevent more intensive or costly levels of care. 22
b. Training and expanded services for therapeutic foster care families and 23
licensed child placement agencies that provide services to students 24
who (i) need support to manage their health, welfare, and safety and 25
(ii) have any of the following: 26
1. Cognitive or behavioral problems. 27
2. Developmental delays. 28
3. Aggressive behavior. 29
c. Evidence-based therapy services aligned with targeted training for 30
students and their parents or guardians, including any of the following: 31
1. Parent-child interaction therapy. 32
2. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. 33
3. Dialectical behavior therapy. 34
4. Child-parent psychotherapy. 35
d. Any other crisis service, including peer -to-peer mentoring, that is 36
likely to increase school safety. 37
(2) The purchase of safety equipment for school buildings and any training 38
associated with the use of the safety equipment." 39
SECTION 3.(b) There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of 40
Public Instruction the sum of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) in nonrecurring funds to 41
be allocated to the School Safety Fund. 42
43
PART IV. EFFECTIVE DATE 44
SECTION 4. Section 3 of this act becomes effective July 1, 2025. The remainder of 45
this act is effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. 46