NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina is one of only three states making progress on all six policy elements. Seminal to North Carolina’s dropout policy is the state’s passage of the Innovative Education Initiatives Act of 2003 (SB 656). The Act authorized community colleges and local school boards to jointly establish innovative programs for students who are at risk of dropping out but would benefit from accelerated instruction. This was followed by the establishment of the New Schools Project in 2004, a public-private partnership with the mission of coordinating statewide high school reform efforts and providing technical assistance and resources to local partners planning new small high schools or redesigning existing ones. As of 2010, The New Schools Project operates about 70 accelerated “Learn and Earn” high schools across the state. These are early college high schools, planned jointly by high schools and community colleges and designed to enable students to earn both a high school diploma and up to two years of college credit, or an Associate’s degree, tuition free, in five years.

In 2007, North Carolina enacted HB 1473, which reestablished the Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation to administer dropout prevention grants targeting innovative dropout programs in districts with graduation rates below 60 percent. The state has distributed individual grants of up to $150,000, via a competitive grant process over the last three years: $7 million in 2007-08, and $15 million for each of the two subsequent fiscal years. The grant prioritizes effective and sustainable dropout prevention programs with potential for scale-up, as well as programs that coordinate local and community input.

The compulsory attendance age in North Carolina remains at 16.  The maximum public school entitlement age is 21.