While the form won’t be officially voted on until the October board meeting — and first passing through the New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) policy committee in three weeks' time — board members had a discussion on what they should or should not require of parents/guardians checking out their students for religious purposes.
For background on the new state law, State Senator Michael Lee, who represents most of New Hanover County, was a primary co-sponsor of SB 1006, which introduced the idea that students can receive up to four hours of excused instructional time for religious reasons. While that bill didn’t technically pass, it ended up in the 634-page state budget bill passed on July 7.
The proposed NHCS form follows the guidelines set forth in policies regarding checking students in and out of school — and exempting students from attendance — and certain curricula for religious reasons.
Current district policies mainly stipulate that a guardian must present an ID when checking a student out, and they are responsible for bringing back a note each time the student is absent from school hours. If the absence is excused, students may make up any work they miss.
This new law — and the subsequent debate over exempting students from school hours to attend religious instruction off campus — likely arose from the national nonprofit organization, LifeWise Academy. However, as the members’ discussion made clear, parents cannot write a blanket permission for their students to be checked out by members of LifeWise Academy. The parent/guardian must identify a specific person in Infinite Campus, NHCS’s student information software, who can check the student out (or in).
Republican Board Member Pat Bradford said that it would be onerous to require parents/guardians to bring back a note each time the student is excused from school to attend religious instruction.
She cited a case out of Everett Public Schools, Washington, which she interpreted as “a win” for Life Academy, not mandating the excuse note each time a student attends the religious instruction off campus. She said the district could face a similar lawsuit if it required this. However, NHCS board attorney Norwood Blanchard said that the Everett district was not applying its policies uniformly between students who had to submit paperwork for religious exemptions and those who had to submit paperwork for athletics participation.
Republican board member Josie Barnhart suggested schools could have up to an hour of extracurricular time during the week that could be used for those religious absences.
However, Superintendent Dr. Chris Barnes said principals are not technically supposed to allow these excused religious absences during core instruction, and that any extra time throughout the school day is typically used for supplemental instruction in math and reading.
He also wanted the public to know that his priorities are protecting instructional time during the day for students.
“I know what the law says, but I encourage families to also focus on the importance of consistent attendance as well. And there are other times available for this type of thing: after school, weekends. So, this is an opportunity that we are providing and supporting, but we also know the value of making sure our kids have an uninterrupted instructional day as well,” Barnes said.
He reiterated that many issues will be handled through a conversation with the parent or guardian and the school’s principal. He said those meetings will help families find a consistent time for the release for religious instruction.
When Libertarian board member David Perry raised whether there would be an accountability measure to ensure students receive excused absences for religious instruction, Democratic board member Dr. Tim Merrick said it would be hard to verify. Blanchard added that secular reasons would not be permissible for the absence, implying parents/guardians would have to attest to being at religious-based instruction.
Barnes also reminded the public that the district is battling “rampant” attendance concerns and chronic absenteeism.
Possible changes to the policies surrounding charging for public records
Board members are set to discuss on Tuesday how they plan to charge for public records. That includes charging for redacting confidential information.
During a policy meeting earlier this month, Merrick said he was under the impression that the district could not charge a fee for separating confidential information from a PRR. Blanchard told committee members that while that had been in NHCS policy, it was not in statute. "It's not mandated," he said, suggesting NHCS could charge for redactions.
That suggestion appears to run afoul of state open records law.
North Carolina law, as pointed out by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, § 132-6(c) “states unequivocally: ‘If it is necessary to separate confidential from nonconfidential information in order to permit the inspection, examination, or copying of the public records, the public agency shall bear the cost of such separation.’”
Most media lawyers agree that case law is limited, but cite a trial court order indicating special charges cannot include the time used reviewing and redacting information (Dunham v. Whitaker, No. 20-CVS-6454; Feb. 10, 2022). Notably, the order awarded attorney fees to the plaintiff. The state has weighed in here too, more directly. A few years ago, the NC Open Government guide published under then-AG Josh Stein noted, "agencies must bear the cost of separating confidential information."
Speaking to WHQR on Wednesday, Blanchard acknowledged that the state law did indicate they could not charge for redactions. He said, because of that, that particular part of the policy would likely be sent back to a committee meeting and would not be voted on next week. He said the district still had to address the issue of onerous requests, but didn't want to contradict state law.
Another issue is special fees for requests that take a lot of staff time to respond to. The NHCS proposal also changes the fee from four hours of “extensive” clerical work to two hours. They also want to fold several related requests into one and charge for the time to procure those records.
State law does allow 'special service fees' for requests that require extensive clerical or IT resources to fulfill. Many government agencies, including the UNC public university system, set a threshold at four hours. So far, the policy does not show what these hourly charges for processing public records might be. The UNC system, for example, charges 'not less than' $25 for each hour over the four-hour limit, according to the system policy manual updated this week.
Removing “historically underutilized,” “minority, women” from NHCS business policies
For policies surrounding participation by businesses, the board is set to vote on whether the district is removing the following:
“Provides information to bidders about certification as programs for historically underutilized businesses.” If approved, the proposed language will change to, “Provides information to bidders about certification as a Small Business Enterprise.”
Under their policy for construction project bidders, it aims to remove language that the firm provides its “minority, women” status. If passed, it would state that the business provides whether it’s “a small business.”
