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Read. Follow. Verify.North Carolina House Bill 802 Requires Schools to Prohibit Nicotine, Hemp, and Vaping Products and Mandates Disciplinary and Educational Interventions for Student Possession
Last action · April 8, 2025: Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action)Sponsors: Phil Rubin and 20 others
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What This Bill Would Do
North Carolina public school units are required to adopt comprehensive policies prohibiting tobacco, nicotine, hemp, and s on all school property and at school-sponsored events, while mandating specific student confiscation procedures, parent notifications within 24 hours, and evidence-based cessation education for possession offenses. The Department of Health and Human Services must approve all distributed cessation materials and publish awareness resources online by September 15, 2025. This act applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.
Students caught possessing nicotine, hemp, or vaping products face mandatory health assessments, cessation education programs, and escalating disciplinary actions across repeat offenses, while public schools must enforce campus-wide bans and provide Department of Health and Human Services-approved prevention materials.
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.
Public school students
Students under 21 face mandatory product confiscation, parent notification within 24 hours, mandatory health assessments, and tiered disciplinary or educational consequences for possessing nicotine, hemp, or vapor products.
Parents and legal guardians
Parents and legal guardians must be notified within 24 hours of a product confiscation and must participate in meetings or receive cessation information alongside the student.
Local school administrative units
Governing bodies of public school units must adopt, implement, and enforce updated written policies banning nicotine, hemp, and vapor products, update student codes of conduct, and enforce mandatory intervention protocols.
Department of Health and Human Services
The Department must collaborate with schools, review and approve all student-facing cessation materials, and publish online awareness resources and school resource lists by September 15, 2025.
State Board of Education
The State Board must expand its annual reporting to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee to include disaggregated data on student discipline and medical interventions related to product possession.
Key Facts
- Governing bodies of public school units must adopt, implement, and enforce written policies prohibiting tobacco, nicotine, hemp, and vapor products in all school buildings, facilities, campuses, and school-sponsored events.
- Policies must include adequate notice, warning signs, and strict enforcement requirements by school personnel, while permitting approved instructional or research activities without consumption.
- The Department of Health and Human Services must work with public school units to provide evidence-based, age-appropriate cessation and use prevention resources accessible throughout the school year.
- All information or resources provided to students must be pre-approved by the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure they are evidence-based and age-appropriate.
Show all 12 facts
- Codes of Student Conduct must require the confiscation of nicotine, hemp, or vapor products from any student under the age of 21 found in possession.
- Schools must notify a student's parent or legal guardian within 24 hours of confiscating a prohibited product.
- For a first possession offense, students and parents must receive cessation information and services, followed by a mandatory student assessment with designated staff or participation in an education program.
- For a second offense, schools must repeat first-offense cessation measures and apply disciplinary actions as outlined in the school's discipline policies.
- For a third or subsequent offense, schools repeat cessation measures and may additionally require educational community service.
- The State Board of Education must report annually by March 15 to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on student disciplinary actions and medical interventions resulting from violations of G.S. 115C-391.5, broken down disaggregated by demographics.
- No later than September 15, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services must publish website awareness information and maintain a list of evidence-based resources for public schools.
- The act becomes effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What items are prohibited on school grounds under this bill?
What happens if a student under 21 is caught with a vaping or hemp product?
Who must approve the educational materials given to students?
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 16 more sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Expansion of Tobacco Bans to Hemp and Vaping
The bill updates existing 2008 tobacco-free school policies to explicitly incorporate hemp products (including CBD and delta variants) and alternative nicotine and vapor products.
Mandatory DHHS Web Publication Deadline
The Department of Health and Human Services is given a strict deadline of September 15, 2025, to publish awareness information and resource lists on its website.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.ncleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance75How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy35Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz60Current news / social attention level
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