North Carolina General Assembly · 2025–2026 session
Showing 1153–1176 of 2,338 bills
Introduced by John Torbett
This bill establishes a six-year pilot program in Cleveland County Schools (2025-2031) that allows the district flexibility in staffing, teacher licensing requirements, and budget management to improve student achievement and teacher recruitment. The program permits hiring unlicensed college graduates as teachers (up to 50% per school, 25% district-wide) in non-core subjects, reducing class size requirements for K-3, and reallocating certain funds, with annual reporting requirements to the state.
Education
Introduced by Richard Carver
This bill creates a pilot program allowing eligible school districts (those with at least 5,000 students and bonding authority) to submit a Financial and Hiring Flexibility Plan to gain greater autonomy in spending state funds and hiring teachers. Participating districts must meet specific academic goals by 2031, including 100% student career planning, 90% teacher retention, improved test score growth, and closing achievement gaps between student groups.
Introduced by Ya Liu
This bill requires North Carolina public schools to include age-appropriate units about Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) contributions and history in courses from elementary through high school. The curriculum would cover topics such as early Asian immigrant labor, challenges faced by Asian Americans, their role in the Civil Rights Movement, and their contributions to government, arts, sciences, and North Carolina society.
Introduced by Allen Chesser
This bill prohibits North Carolina public schools from serving or selling foods and beverages containing specific artificial dyes and additives (such as potassium bromate, titanium dioxide, and red/yellow/blue dyes) during the school day. Schools must certify compliance, and the Department of Public Instruction will maintain a public list of compliant schools. Students can still bring these foods from home.
Introduced by Hugh Blackwell
This bill requires North Carolina public schools to post lesson plans and course materials online within 10 days of instruction, organized by subject and grade level. Schools must list all instructional and supplemental materials used, provide links where available, and offer procedures for in-person review of materials not available online, with some exemptions for very small schools.
Introduced by Beth Helfrich
This bill appropriates a total of approximately $73.1 million in state funds for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to three Northern Mecklenburg County towns: Davidson ($20.4 million), Cornelius ($6 million), and Huntersville ($47.7 million). The funds are directed toward public safety infrastructure and equipment, including fire station construction, emergency vehicles, police facilities, and equipment upgrades.
Taxes & Budget
Introduced by Mary Belk
This bill modifies North Carolina's Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) program to provide schools with greater flexibility in how they structure advanced teaching positions and manage class sizes. Specifically, it changes how 'classroom excellence teachers' are defined, increases the percentage of teachers who can be designated as 'adult leadership teachers' and 'classroom excellence teachers,' and allows ATR schools to temporarily exceed kindergarten through third grade class size limits with state approval.
Introduced by Brenden Jones
This bill requires the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to negotiate and sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the Town of Lake Waccamaw. The agreement will allow the town to access Lake Waccamaw State Park to plan and repair the Waccamaw Dam, with the state resuming maintenance of the dam after repairs are complete. The agreement must be finalized by September 1, 2025, and reported to the legislature.
Environment & Energy
Introduced by Patricia Cotham
This bill creates a new grant program allowing school districts to apply for state funding to cover extraordinary costs of educating students with disabilities, including placements in private schools. The state will reimburse 75% of qualifying costs for students whose total service costs exceed four times the state average per-pupil spending on special education, and requires annual monitoring reports on homebound, modified day, and hospital placements.
Introduced by David Willis
This bill aims to improve teacher recruitment and retention through multiple provisions: offering tuition waivers for children of veteran teachers with 12-16 years of service, reviving a program allowing retired teachers to work in high-need schools, expanding teacher licensure reciprocity for out-of-state teachers, and strengthening reporting requirements for threats and assaults against teachers.
Introduced by Mark Pless
This bill creates criminal penalties for health care providers who knowingly destroy, alter, falsify, or omit information from medical records. The offense is classified as a Class H felony if done to conceal medical errors or abuse/neglect that caused serious injury or death, a Class A1 misdemeanor for concealing other material facts related to potential claims, and a Class I felony if money is exchanged for such conduct.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
Introduced by Dean Arp
This bill establishes a pilot program to create an affordable childcare facility through a public-private partnership. The state would provide land and a building shell on state or university property, while a private operator would run the facility and charge rates at least 25% below market rates. The state would invest $5 million to support the project.
Social Services & Welfare
Introduced by Phil Rubin
This bill requires law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in North Carolina to adopt policies that prevent colorimetric field drug tests (color-based drug identification kits) from being used alone to arrest, charge, or convict someone of drug possession. Instead, a confirmed laboratory test must corroborate the field test result before these actions can occur. The bill also requires that defendants charged based only on field tests be cited and released or released on their own recognizance pending trial.
Introduced by Brian Turner
This bill appropriates $582.2 million from North Carolina's Savings Reserve to help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene. The funds are distributed to various state agencies and programs to address unmet needs including housing assistance, business recovery grants, infrastructure repairs, agricultural support, and community recovery services in the affected area.
Introduced by Tracy Clark
This bill appropriates $1 million in recurring state funds for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to North Carolina A&T State University to support Aggie Academy, a laboratory school operated by the university. The funds become available starting July 1, 2025.
Introduced by Chris Humphrey
This bill authorizes the Town of Maysville to levy a room occupancy tax of up to 6% on hotel and short-term rental receipts. Revenue from the tax would be managed by a Tourism Development Authority, with at least two-thirds used for tourism promotion and the remainder for tourism-related projects in the town.
Introduced by Harry Warren
This bill increases the dollar thresholds used to classify car accidents under North Carolina's Safe Driver Incentive Plan. A 'major accident' threshold rises from $3,850 to $5,975 in property damage, an 'intermediate accident' range shifts from $2,300-$3,850 to $3,570-$5,975, and a 'minor accident' threshold increases from $2,300 to $3,570. The changes take effect October 1, 2025.
Transportation & Infrastructure
Introduced by Karl Gillespie
This bill removes approximately 62 acres of property in Cherokee County from the corporate limits of the Town of Andrews. The affected parcels will no longer be subject to municipal taxes starting July 1, 2025, though the town retains the right to collect any tax liens or special assessments that existed before the deannexation.
Local Government
Introduced by Diane Wheatley
This bill allows retired Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) and Assistant Public Defenders (APDs) with at least 5 years of service to return to work for the Judicial Branch after a 2-month waiting period instead of the standard 6-month separation required for other retirees. The bill requires the State Treasurer to obtain IRS approval to ensure the change does not jeopardize the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System.
Introduced by Brian Echevarria
This bill makes four changes to North Carolina elections: it prohibits ranked choice voting statewide, clarifies rules about where election-related activity can occur near polling places, reduces the early voting period from the third Thursday before an election to the second Thursday, and modifies the identification requirements for voters requesting absentee ballots.
Elections & Voting
This bill requires the UNC School of Medicine's Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) to compile and share evidence-based information about Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) with all North Carolina healthcare practitioners. NC AHEC must work with medical boards and professional organizations to create standard information materials and report completed materials to the state legislature by September 1, 2025.
Healthcare
Introduced by Mary Harrison
This bill prohibits proposition bets (wagers on individual statistics or actions that don't affect the final outcome) on college and amateur sports in North Carolina. It also prevents in-person sports betting at facilities hosting college sports events for eight hours before and during those events.
Business & Labor
Introduced by Howard Penny
This bill directs the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Quality to jointly study the state's vehicle safety and emissions inspection program. The study will examine whether inspection frequency can be reduced or eliminated, analyze the program's efficiency in light of modern vehicles, and provide recommendations to the General Assembly by March 1, 2026.
Introduced by Julia Greenfield
This bill protects employees who are legally required to report suspected abuse, neglect, fraud, or other threats to vulnerable persons from being fired, demoted, or otherwise punished by their employers for making those reports. It allows employees to file complaints with the North Carolina Commissioner of Labor and pursue legal action if they face retaliation, with potential remedies including reinstatement, back pay, and civil penalties up to $5,000.