The North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) is responsible for "supervising and administering the free public school system and the educational funds provided for its support." Board members include the Lieutenant Governor, the State Treasurer, and 11 other members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature in joint session. Eight of the eleven Board members appointed by the Governor represent each of the state's eight education regions, and three are at-large appointees. The eleven gubernatorial appointees serve eight-year terms; the two ex-officio members' terms coincide with the term of their respective offices. The policies developed by the North Carolina State Board of Education set the direction for all aspects of the Department of Public Instruction and local public school organization and operations.
The Board is also served by seven advisors (non-voting), as specified in General Statute. They include a local superintendent appointed by the State Superintendent, the NC Principal of the Year, the Raleigh Dingman award winner (local board member), two NC Teachers of the Year (each serving a two-year term), and two high school students (a high school junior and a high school senior, each serving a two-year term beginning in the junior year).
Please reach out to the NCDPI Arts Education Team:
S681 passed in June of 2020 and became Session Law SL2020-78 in July.
This law directed the State Board of Education (SBE) to modify graduation requirements, which previously included an option to include an arts education credit, to require one credit of arts education to be completed at any time during grades six through twelve. The new requirement. begins with students entering Grade 6 in 2022-23 and, subsequently, in Grade 9 in 2025-26.
To provide the clearest guidance on the SBE’s recent passage of the new graduation policy language and what that means for K-12 education, we have compiled the most current information.
The NC Department of Public Instruction has been working diligently to ensure the systems are in place to support districts and schools with the implementation of this legislation.
The updated language for NC SBE Policy GRAD-004 is reprinted below. Please note: The total number of credits required to graduate is not changing . The new requirement is embedded as part of the 6 elective credits of the 22 required credits for graduation.
8. Beginning in fall 2022, students entering Grade 6 and subsequently entering Grade 9 for the first time in 2025-26 shall have at least one arts education course in grades 6-12.
At this time, a NCDPI working group is engaged in ensuring that every student’s completion of the arts education graduation requirement will be followed through course codes in PowerSchool as part of the established graduation plan process (NCSBOE Policy GRAD-004 ).
Students will be able to complete this graduation requirement at any time within their grades 6-12 education. Arts Education courses in grades 6-8 that follow the SCOS for their assigned grade level will count towards the graduation requirement.
It is Imperative to code courses correctly : Only those courses with officially recognized course codes (those starting with a “5”) will be automatically tracked in PowerSchool. DO NOT use course codes beginning with “9” . You can learn more about the NCDPI Arts Education Course Coding structure at bit.ly/NCArtsEdCourseManual .
The NC Standard Course of Study must be taught : Only those courses which teach the entire Standard Course of Study in an Arts Ed subject will satisfy the Arts Education Graduation Requirement. There are no requirements about the length or duration of a course. Local courses which do not teach the entire Standard Course of Study in an Arts Ed subject would not satisfy the Arts Ed Graduation Requirement and should be coded as local electives.
For more information, you can visit the NCDPI SIS Resources webpage or visit the Arts Ed Course Manual .
Students moving from another state to North Carolina in the ninth grade or later may be exempt from the arts education graduation requirement if requiring them to do so would keep them from graduating with the cohort to which they are assigned.
Please reach out to the NCDPI Arts Education Team with any questions:
In North Carolina, we teach within the Comprehensive Arts Education framework. The Three components of CAE - Arts Education, Integration, and Exposure - are interdependent and were found by the Comprehensive Arts Education Task Force to all be necessary.
Arts Education is the instruction of an arts discipline according to the Standard Course of Study to develop the student as artist.
Arts Integration is instruction designed to show students how non arts content connects to arts content in both areas
Arts Exposure gives students the opportunity to experience the arts as presented by professionals on a stage, in a gallery, or as a teaching artist in residence.
Just as a three-legged stool cannot stay upright without one of its legs, an arts education without one of these components is incomplete for any student.
Below are resources that support the existence of Comprehensive Arts Education:
Session Law 2020-78: AN ACT ENACTING AGENCY POLICY DIRECTIVES FOR THE 2019-2021 FISCAL BIENNIUM, CONSISTENT WITH CERTAIN POLICY DIRECTIVES IN RATIFIED HOUSE BILL 966 OF THE 2019 REGULAR SESSION; MODIFYING STAFFING IN THE OFFICE OF RECOVERY AND RESILIENCY; AND CLARIFYING THAT PARTIES TO AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL SUPPORT AGREEMENT WITH A MAJOR MILITARY INSTALLATION THAT OPERATES A PSAP MAY USE 911 FUNDS FOR NEXT GENERATION 911 SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY. (ARTS EDUCATION GRADUATION REQUIREMENT SECTION 2.5)