NC H978

Expands the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program to include elementary education, English language arts (ELA), and other hard-to-staff subject areas in addition to STEM and special education.

Reduces loan forgiveness service requirements from two years to one year at non-low-performing schools and from one year to six months at low-performing schools for each year of forgivable loan awarded.

Increases mentoring support payments to $2,200 per recipient at low-performing schools and maintains $1,000 per recipient at non-low-performing schools through the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program.

Appropriates $1,650,000 in recurring funds for the 2019-2020 fiscal year to provide 50 additional forgivable loan slots beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year.

Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to identify hard-to-staff subject areas by October 1, 2019, and directs the Teaching Fellows Commission to award initial loans for these areas by April 1, 2020, with the act effective July 1, 2019.