GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1999

H	3 

HOUSE BILL 517
Committee Substitute Favorable 4/27/99
Senate Education/Higher Education Committee Substitute Adopted 5/5/99

Short Title:  Study Dropout Rate Computation/ABCs Prog.	(Public)

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Sponsors:

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Referred to:  

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March 22, 1999

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT DIRECTING THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO STUDY THE COMPUTATION OF DROPOUT RATES FOR THE ABCs PROGRAM.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  The State Board of Education, in consultation with the Office of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Correction and the Department of Community Colleges, shall study the method for computing dropout rates for the School-Based Management and Accountability Program (ABCs).  The State Board of Education shall recommend whether the computation used to set the  dropout rate for this purpose should include students who (i) transfer to a community college; (ii) are placed by the courts in a setting which provides educational opportunities; (iii) are expelled from school; (iv) do not return to school after a long-term suspension in accordance with a safe school plan; or (v) have been counted previously as dropouts.  As a part of this study, the State Board of Education shall report, from data for the 1998-99 school year, the number of students in each of these categories.  The State Board of Education shall examine whether it should continue to use other methods of computing the dropout rate for other purposes.
Section 2.  The State Board of Education shall report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by December 15, 1999, regarding its recommendations as to the computation of the dropout rates for the ABCs accountability program.  This report shall include the number of dropouts for the 1998-99 school year based on categories (i) and (iii)-(v) in Section 1 of this act.  The report also shall include the number of dropouts for the 1998-99 school year based on category (ii) in Section 1 of this act if this information is available.
Section 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1999.