Having overridden Governor Roy Cooper’s veto, the North Carolina General Assembly has finalized the state’s budget for FY 2017-19. It includes several provisions impacting children birth through age eight. Highlights include:
- Creation of a Birth through Third Grade Interagency Council and an Associate Superintendent of Early Education.
- Expanded funding for NC Pre-K to serve an estimated additional 1,7252 children in FY 2017-18 and 3,525 in FY 2018-19.
- Expanded funding for Smart Start for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
- Subsidy child care market rate increase for infants and toddlers in Tier 3 counties and school-aged children in Tier 1 and 2 counties.
- Development of a case management system for child welfare.
- Funding to implement the child welfare program improvement plan.
- Alignment of the state blood lead standard with the federal standard.
- Expanded funding for by $2 million for Nurse Family Partnership.
- Pay increase for principals and assistant principals and a revised pay schedule based on number of students and school growth scores.
- Pay increase for teachers.
- Pay increase for Local Education Agency employees.
- Funding to continue teacher bonus programs.
- Funding to support positions in the State Superintendent’s office.
- Expanded funding for textbooks and digital resources.
A detailed outline of select provisions related to children birth-through-eight are included in the chart below.
Special thanks to our intern, Haley Schilly, for compiling this data.