As North Carolina students and educators have been returning to school in January, they’re discovering the state has a few new year’s resolutions of its own. While much of the education legislation passed in 2025 took effect last fall, a few changes kicked in on Jan. 1, 2026.
[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ Daily, Weekend and Election 2026 newsletters.]
And others will trickle through at the start of the 2026-2027 school year.
Technology in K-12
The one that educators, students and parents are undoubtedly eyeing is the cellphone regulation bill that Gov. Josh Stein signed into law in July.
After a months-long mission effectively to ban cellphones during instructional time, the legislature finally succeeded last summer after inserting a version of the plan into what was a social media literacy bill.
Rather than establishing an overarching mandate, the bill requires districts and charter schools to develop their own policies that, at a minimum, “prohibit(s) students from using, displaying, or having a wireless communication device turned on during instructional time.” This law allows the schools to determine the consequences for violating the cellphone policy, including confiscation and further disciplinary measures as permitted by the school’s code of conduct.
School districts and charter schools were required to submit a copy of their developed policies to the Department of Public Instruction by Sept. 1, 2025. The bill requires those policies to have gone into effect Jan. 1, 2026, resulting in most NC students returning to school this month to stricter device policies than in 2025.
The bill was generally popular once passed and considered a success for both the legislature and state education. North Carolina is one of 35 states to institute cellphone restrictions in schools, most of which did so in 2025. President of the North Carolina Association of Educators Tamika Walker Kelly told Carolina Public Press in July educators were overwhelmingly concerned about the impact of cellphones and social media on the learning environment.
“Educators do welcome the level of protecting the learning environment, not only for them as the facilitators of teaching in that space, but also especially for the students, so that they have a chance to engage with one another more authentically through person-to-person relationships, but also that they are able to have that focus on the academics,” Kelly said.
And, as intended by the original iteration of the bill, schools also must offer instruction on social media’s effects on social, emotional and physical health in “the standard course of study.” It requires that students receive this once in elementary school, once in middle school and twice in high school.
The instruction will begin at the start of the 2026-2027 school year this fall and must include information on social media’s effects on mental health such as addiction, the distribution of misinformation on social media, the permanency of information shared online, predatory behavior and human trafficking on the internet and more.
Additionally, local boards of education must develop and adopt internet safety policies that regulate the use of school-provided devices beginning Jan. 1, 2026. The policies must limit access to only “age-appropriate subject matter,” prohibit access to social media platforms unless being used for educational purposes and other requirements related to protecting students’ data and privacy.
Higher education
The legislature honored hazing victim Harrison Kowiak with “Harrison’s Law,” which expands upon the existing restrictions and definition of hazing. It took effect Dec. 1, 2025, and will apply to offenses committed from that day on. Kowiak died from a brain injury sustained during a hazing ritual while pledging a fraternity at Lenoir-Rhyne University in 2008.
While hazing was previously considered a Class 2 offense, Harrison’s Law elevates it to a Class A1 misdemeanor offense for any student who aids in hazing. It also imposes stricter punishment on teachers, coaches and other school personnel who aid or abet in hazing, making such offense a Class I felony.
The law expands the previous recognized definition of hazing to include “serious psychological injury” rather than only physical injury.
In a budget adjustment bill, legislators increased tuition for out-of-state students seeking to attend specific state universities through North Carolina’s low-tuition program, NC Promise. The program includes Western Carolina University, UNC-Pembroke, Fayetteville State University and Elizabeth City State University.
North Carolina residents can attend those universities for just $500 per semester, while nonresidents could previously pay $2,500. But tuition will increase for nonresidents to $3,500 per semester this year, just as the program is staring down a multimillion-dollar deficit for the third year in a row.
Newly matriculated students will pay the increased cost beginning at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year. Currently enrolled nonresidents will continue to pay $2,500 per semester.
Funding battles persist
Two key matters of education funding persist into the new year, despite desperate calls for resolutions.
The decades-old Leandro v. State of North Carolina case continues to hang in the balance since the state Supreme Court once again delayed a ruling in December, much to the dismay of educators.
Despite multiple rulings in favor of Leandro spanning decades — the most recent being in 2022 — the newly Republican majority state Supreme Court reheard the case in February 2024, but has yet to issue a decision nearly two years later.
Educators are pushing for the court to settle Leandro once and for all and enforce the additional funding recommended as part of the remedial plan developed for the state in 2019. Leandro is sure to remain a hot topic in 2026 regardless of whether the court issues a ruling.
“Year after year, the Court has declined to act, choosing instead to ignore its responsibility in this critical matter,” said NCAE President Tamika Walker Kelly in a press release.
“The Supreme Court’s ongoing inaction makes it clear that the court, like the North Carolina General Assembly, are not committed to ensuring that North Carolina’s 1.5 million public-school students receive their constitutional right to a sound, basic education.”
Along with delayed action on Leandro, the legislature has still yet to pass a state budget weeks into 2026, making North Carolina the only state without one. The stalemate leaves a lot undetermined in public education, including potential higher starting salaries and the restoration of master’s pay.
Teachers recently took to the streets to protest the lack of a budget and ruling on Leandro in addition to the erosion of their benefits and low pay. The group NC Teachers in Action plans to protest once a month until the legislature reconvenes in April.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.
