Legislative Update for the Weeks of June 9 and 16

Most of the attention has been on the budget for the past few weeks but some legislation has moved through the House and Senate.

Education

HB 230, Clarify Read to Achieve/School Performance Grades (Malone, Martin, Brody, Samuelson). HB 230 amends the Read to Achieve law passed last year to make several modifications, including clarifying the good cause exemptions from mandatory retention for Limited English Proficient students and students with IEPs (a more detailed summary is in the June 6^th post).  The legislation has been signed by the Governor and is S.L. 2014-5.

Common Core Legislation: HB 1061, Replace Common Core State Standards with NC's Higher Academic Standards (Holloway, Pittman, Speciale) and SB 812, Maintain State Authority over Academic Standards (Soucek, Tillman). The House and Senate both passed bills to replace or modify the Common Core standards being used in North Carolina schools. Each bill would set up an Academic Standards Review Commission that would study North Carolina’s current academic standards and then recommend changes to the State Board of Education. The Senate version appears to allow the Commission and Board of Education to consider Common Core as the basis for North Carolina’s future standards, but the House version would not. The NC Chamber, which has been opposed to the repeal of the standards, came out in favor of the Senate version. The House Education committee took up the Senate version this week but simply put its own language into the Senate bill, which will eventually set the bill up for a conference committee where the House and Senate can work out a compromise.

HB712, Clarifying Changes/Special Ed Scholarships (Glazier, Stam, Jackson). HB 712 clarifies the Special Education scholarships for children with disabilities and exempts certain schools from child care licensure requirements. It clarifies the definition of a qualifying child and includes related services and educational technology as reimbursable. The child care licensure portion exempts private schools that operate child care facilities from state licensure. It has been approved by the full Senate and has been sent back to the House for concurrence.

Health and Human Services

HB 1181, Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina (Dollar, Burr, Avila, Lambeth). As filed, this bill would initiate Gov. McCrory’s Medicaid reform package by directing DHHS to begin setting up a system of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). However, the House released a new proposal this week that sets up a path toward Medicaid reform that tracks with the Governor’s proposal, but also concedes an important provision to the Senate, which could pave the way for a budget compromise. The bill now calls for provider-led organizations to manage and coordinate the majority of the Medicaid population. However, the House proposal also states that the system should be fully capitated by 2020. A "fully capitated system" means that provider-run organizations would get a finite amount of money to serve a defined population, leaving providers with all of the risk of going over budget and all the savings of staying under budget. While the Senate prefers a single private managed care entity, a capitated provider-led system might be the next best thing for them. The proposal keeps full control of administration with the Division of Medical Assistance. The proposal does not explicitly address the role of the LME/MCOs but does propose a controversial pilot for one LME/MCO, Cardinal Innovations, to manage the physical and behavioral health care for certain individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. House Bill 1181 passed the House Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday and has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee.

Elections

SB 403, Omnibus Election Clarifications (Bingham). SB 403 makes a number of changes to the voting laws, from eligibility to file for office after switching parties to filing requirements. One section adds a provision to the current law regarding the procedure for voting absentee ballots to ensure that the failure of a witness to list a zip code does not invalidate the application and certificate. It was approved by the House Election committee this week and will be voted on by the full House next week.

Other Issues

HB 1069, Unemployment Insurance Law Changes (Howard, Warren, Arp).  HB 1069 seeks to amend the Unemployment Insurance laws, including requiring photo ID for benefits; sets benefit duration according to the unemployment rate; modifies the work search requirement by increasing the number of job contacts to 5 per week and eliminating the requirement to search on 2 different days. The bill has been approved by both chambers and awaits the signature of the Governor.

SB 493, 2014 Regulatory Reform Act (Walters). SB 493 was brought forward in House committee this week with a number of unrelated policy proposals, including many items that already passed the House. These items include the ban on tanning beds for children under 18 and Autism insurance. The bill was calendared for the House floor on Wednesday, but was referred back to committee after members of both parties expressed concern about the bill’s process and content. It remains in the Regulatory Reform Committee.

SB594, Omnibus Justice Amendments (Davis).  SB 594 was approved by the House Judiciary C committee this week. The bill makes a number of changes to the criminal statutes. Of note to Disability Rights NC is a section that amends our state law to conform to the US Supreme Court decision in Hall v. Florida, in which the Supreme Court held that states must take into account more than a hard and fast IQ number in determining whether an individual has an intellectual disability for purposes of capital punishment. The bill has been referred to Appropriations.