The Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Education met on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Update on Remote Instruction

The NC Department of Public Instruction provided an update to the Committee on remote instruction data for 2020.

 

Here are a few key findings:

  • 36% of students are learning all virtual, 59% in person
  • 81% of students are attending virtual education regularly
  • Less than  1% of students are unaccounted for in NC’s public schools with a range reporting from .7% to less than 1%
  • 53% of students who qualify for free/reduced lunch are recieving meals
  • Public School Units (PSUs) have created focused mental health support and counseling for students on social emotional learning
  • Equipment – based on NCGA funding in HB 1043, 100,000 devices for learning were purchased and distributed, there are more requests for devices
  • Broadband  – every county is still struggling with connectivity, many schools have implements “park and learn” spaces for students to use broadband services

Committee Report to the NCGA

This report provides a summary of all of the Committee meetings this legislative session.

Key reccomendations from the report:

Lunch Periods

  • The School Nutrition Associaiton and the CDC recommend students be given at leart 20 minutes for eating lunch after being seated. The Committee encourages local education leaders to work collaboratively to find ways to ensure students have adequate time to eat lunch.

Breakfast

  • Only 30% of eleigible students participated in the National School Breakfast Program
  • Committee encourages local education leaders to allocate time for breakfast.

Meal Debt

  • Total statewide meal debt was $1.9 million for the 2018-19 school year.
  • The NCGA allocated $3.9 million for schools ot provide lunches at no cost to students of all grade levels for reduced price meals.
  • The NCGA allocated $75 million dollars from federal relief for emergency school nutrition services.

Digital Learning Access

  • Committee recommends public school units to report information on student digital learning access to better address this issue.

Computer Science

  • Committee reccommends an annual report on computer science implementation.