Raise the Age and Corporal Punishment Bills Filed; Draft Budgets Delayed a Week April 8, 2011
Greetings!
Draft budgets were not released as expected this week, but they are now expected next week. We have heard Tuesday and Thursday as possibilities.
The House and Senate have been trying to stay on the same page on the budget, but this week they were not able to come to an agreement, particularly on the Education budget. The conflict is apparently over how many resources to put towards K-12 education vs. higher education. The House will complete its version of the draft budget and present it next week. The Senate version is expected about a month or so later and may be substantially similar except for Education.
Raise the Age and Corporal Punishment bills Bills to raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 16 to 18 for youth accused of minor crimes and to require parental permission for corporal punishment in public schools were entered this week! - HB 632 (SB 506): Juvenile Age to 18 was filed Tuesday and sent to the House Judiciary B committee. It has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
- SB 498 (HB 579): Modify Law RE: Corporal Punishment was filed on Monday and sent to Senate Education/Higher Education committee. It is scheduled to be heard next week, we think on Wednesday.
These are two of Action for Children's big agenda items this year. There is some advocacy work to be done in the Judiciary B committee over the next week on the Raise the Age bill. Stay tuned for a call to action on Raise the Age soon. See Action Item below to see how you can help on corporal punishment this week. Bill Update Tracking lists of bills in each of Action for Children's four areas of interest will be maintained on the website and updated weekly. Please visit our Policy Action page for full lists. Here are highlights of the bills that were introduced or moved this week. There were literally hundreds of bills entered this week because the filing deadline for most House bills was Wednesday. There should be few House bills filed from here out. We have chosen some bills to highlight below, but this is certainly not all the child-focused bills entered or acted on this week. Please check out the Policy Action page for full lists. Safety HB111: HANDGUN PERMIT VALID IN PARKS & RESTAURANTS passed the House but sent to Senate Rules committee. H382: JUVENILE CODE REVISIONS passed House and moved on to Senate Judiciary II. HB632 (SB 506): JUVENILE AGE TO 18. Introduced. House bill moved to Judiciary B committee. Would raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 16 to 18 for youth accused of minor crimes. HB744: SAFE STUDENTS ACT. Introduced and sent to Education committee. Requires that principals ask citizenship status of children in school, for "fiscal purposes." HB838: PROTECT YOUTH/FARM FAMILY EMPLOYMENT. Introduced and sent to House Agriculture committee. Brings farm child labor laws in line with current industrial child labor laws, while excepting children of farm families. The Child Fatality Task Force and the farmworkers coalition have endorsed the bill. SB49: INCREASE FINE FOR SPEEDING/SCHOOL ZONES has passed the House and Senate, though in different enough forms that a conference committee has now been formed. Would increase the penalty for speeding in a school zone to equal that of speeding in a construction zone: $250. SB241: INCREASE DWI PENALTY/CHILD IN VEHICLE passed Senate and referred to House Judiciary B. Education HB7: COMM COLLEGES/OPT OUT OF FED'L LOAN PROGRAM. Sent to the Governor. HB736: AMEND LAW RE. SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. Introduced and referred to House Education. Would address school-to-prison-pipeline issues, including short- and long-term suspensions, the use of reasonable force, corporal punishment (defines the term for the first time in state law), expulsions and alternative education.
HB770: REDUCE & PREVENT SCHOOL DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS. Introduced and referred to House Education. Encourages use of positive behavioral supports and other techniques to improve school behavior and reduce suspensions and expulsions.
HB840: HEALTHIER AND GREENER SCHOOLS ACT. Introduced and referred to House Education. Would improve schools meals, encourage physical activity in schools, establish school health centers, school nurses, implement use of green cleaning products and more.
SB8: NO CAP ON NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS has passed second reading in the House. Final reading is scheduled for Monday evening. The bill would next go to the Governor.
SB498 (HB579): MODIFY LAW RE. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Introduced and referred to Senate Education/Higher Education. Would require parental consent before corporal punishment is administered in public school. See Action Items, below. Health HB115: NC HEALTH BENEFIT EXCHANGE is scheduled to be heard in House Insurance Committee on Tuesday (1 pm, LB 1228). The bill is expected to pass easily. It would establish the health insurance industry as a voting presence on the Board that regulates the state health exchange, to be implemented in 2014.
HB218: LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY sent to Senate Health Care committee.
TAKE ACTION: Help Eliminate Corporal Punishment in Public Schools by Contacting Senate Education/Higher Education Committee this week! SB 498 to require parental consent before a public school can administer corporal punishment was filed this week and referred to Senate Education/Higher Education committee. The bill is scheduled to be heard next Wednesday. Please call members of the Senate Education committee before then to encourage them to support the bill.
Leadership of the committee include:
Please also contact members. Click here to see the full list of members.
TAKE ACTION: Help Together NC Campaign Go Viral! (from our friends at Together NC)
Together NC has launched an exciting new effort--Speak NC--a series of short but compelling videos that will document the human impact of state services at risk of being cut in the legislature. Each Monday, we'll release a new video story highlighting a specific service, such as speech therapy or school nurses that have helped thousands of North Carolinians. And we'll add on an action alert so that Together NC members and your networks can send the story directly to your legislators. This morning, to build up to next Monday, we released a video trailer that offers a sneak peak of the stories to come. Help us spread the word of the trailer & Speak NC. We hope that this will help lift up the voices of North Carolinians who will be harmed by budget cuts in a creative, but forceful way. But help us get Speak NC out there--the stories can't be told unless you help us get them out there! Sincerely, Action for Children North Carolina | 
