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Read. Follow. Verify.North Carolina House Bill 816 Increases Accountability and Reporting Standards for Private Schools Receiving Opportunity Scholarship Funds
Last action · April 8, 2025: Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action)Sponsors: Phil Rubin and 31 others
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What This Bill Would Do
North Carolina House Bill 816 requires private schools receiving funds to submit expanded annual reports, including student test scores, graduation rates, criminal background checks for top leadership, and fire inspection documentation. The measure also mandates that the State Auditor annually review financial audits from at least three participating private schools and report findings to the legislature.
Private schools enrolling students who use state-funded voucher grants face new administrative, financial reporting, and safety compliance mandates, while state oversight agencies receive expanded authority to audit school expenditures and academic performance.
- North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship program provides state-funded vouchers to help eligible students pay tuition at participating private schools. context
- The State Auditor is an independent constitutional official responsible for auditing state agencies and programs that receive public funds. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Nonpublic schools accepting Opportunity Scholarship funds
Nonpublic schools must comply with mandatory financial auditing schedules, background check policies, safety planning, and expanded annual reporting of student test scores and tuition rates.
Students receiving Opportunity Scholarship grants
Students have their standardized test scores and graduation rates reported to state authorities, and participating schools are barred from charging them extra fees based on their scholarship status.
State Auditor
The State Auditor is assigned a new mandatory duty to annually review at least three nonpublic school financial audits and report findings to the legislative oversight committee.
Key Facts
- Nonpublic schools accepting Opportunity Scholarship funds must annually provide documentation of required tuition and fees charged to scholarship students.
- Schools must provide criminal background checks for the staff member with the highest decision-making authority and adopt uniform background check policies for teachers.
- Participating schools must administer standardized achievement tests annually to eligible students in grade three and higher and submit test performance data to the State Education Assistance Authority by July 15.
- Schools must report graduation rates, including four-year cohort graduation rates, consistent with federal standards.
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- Nonpublic schools enrolling 70 or more scholarship students or accepting $100,000 or more in scholarship grants must contract with a certified public accountant for an annual financial audit; schools accepting less than $100,000 must audit every three years.
- Audit results must be reported to the Authority and the State Auditor by December 31 of the audit year.
- Participating schools must maintain an in-person instructional facility within the state and provide annual facility and demographic data, including fire inspection documentation and teacher license percentages.
- Nonpublic schools must comply with school safety requirements, including adopting a School Risk Management Plan, providing schematic diagrams to law enforcement, and holding annual lockdown exercises.
- Participating schools are prohibited from charging additional fees based on a student's status as a scholarship recipient.
- The State Auditor must annually review completed audits of at least three nonpublic schools receiving scholarship funds and report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by March 15.
Frequently Asked Questions
What new reporting requirements do nonpublic schools face under this bill?
What is the role of the State Auditor under this legislation?
Can private schools charge extra fees to students receiving scholarship grants?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
3 actions- Apr 8, 2025HouseRef To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Apr 8, 2025HousePassed 1st Reading
- Apr 7, 2025HouseIntroducedFiled
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Show 27 more sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Expansion of State Oversight into Private Vouchers
The bill shifts private schools receiving state scholarship funds closer to public school accountability standards by requiring standardized testing, safety plans, and direct financial audit reviews by the State Auditor.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.ncleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance80How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy75Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment10Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz60Current news / social attention level
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