AN ACT to require reports of sexual assault or HARASSMENT to specify if the incident occurred on a school bus, to increase the FREQUENCY of acts of school violence reporting, and to establish a penalty for failing to report an act of violence.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑12(21) reads as rewritten:

(21)    Duty to Monitor Acts of School Violence. – The State Board of Education shall monitor and compile an annual a biannual report on acts of violence in the public schools.schools in accordance with the following:

a.         The State Board shall adopt standard definitions for acts of school violence and shall require local boards of education to report them within five days of the act occurring to the State Board in a standard format adopted by the State Board. The State Board shall require local boards of education to specify in their reports if an act of violence occurred on a school bus and the State Board shall include this data in the reports required under this subdivision. Failure of an employee of a local school administrative unit or a member of a local board of education to make a report to the State Board as required by this sub‑subdivision is a Class I felony.

b.         The State Board shall submit its report on acts of violence in the public schools to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by March 15 of each year.at the end of the second and fourth quarters of each school year.

c.         Reports submitted pursuant to this subdivision are public record, except that any sensitive identifying information from the report shall be redacted for the privacy of minors.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2025‑2026 school year.