Summary — HB 325: Legislative Building Field Trip Pilot Program
Status & timing
- Establishes the "Legislative Building Field Trip Pilot Program" for the 2025–2026 and 2026–2027 school years.
- Effective date: July 1, 2025.
- Administered by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
- Appropriation: $1,500,000 in nonrecurring General Fund dollars in each year of the 2025–2027 biennium (total $3,000,000 across the two years).
Purpose
- To encourage civic engagement and civic learning by helping public school units fund one school-year field trip per school to tour the Legislative Building.
Key provisions
- Eligibility: All public school units in the State may apply. Each selected public school unit may receive grants for its schools.
- Award size: Up to $2,000 per school, but no more than the amount requested in the school’s submitted budget.
- Permitted use of funds: Transportation expenses to and from the Legislative Building only — limited to bus rental, fuel, or compensation for drivers. (Other costs such as admission fees, substitute teachers, meals, etc., are not authorized by the statute.)
- Frequency: One Legislative Building field trip per school per school year under the Program.
- Prioritization: DPI shall prioritize applicants located in counties designated as Tier 1 under G.S. 143B‑437.08 (economically distressed counties).
Application, selection, and reporting timeline
- DPI must publish application criteria and guidelines no later than August 1 of each funded year.
- Applications accepted through October 1 of each year.
- DPI selects recipients no later than November 1 each year.
- Reporting: By February 15 each year of the Program DPI must report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee with: (1) list of grantees; (2) description of how grants were used; (3) estimate of students served; and (4) number of unfunded applications and total additional funding needed to fund them.
Who is affected
- Directly: public school units, individual public schools, and students who may take Legislative Building tours.
- Administratively: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (grant administration, application review, reporting).
- Budgetary: one-time General Fund appropriations of $1.5M per year for two years.
Potential program scale
- At the maximum $2,000 award per school, each $1.5M annual appropriation could cover up to ~750 schools per year (1,500,000 ÷ 2,000 = 750), subject to actual award amounts and budget requests.
Notes
- This is a time‑limited pilot (two school years) with required reporting to inform legislative oversight about demand, use of funds, and potential future expansion.
