NC S582

Nonpublic schools accepting students with Opportunity Scholarships must administer annual academic assessments at the same grade levels as public schools, using standardized tests, individual assessments, portfolio evaluations, or alternative measures agreed upon by parents and the school.

Scholarship-receiving students must participate in required assessments to maintain eligibility, and nonpublic schools must retain assessment data for five years and subject it to Authority audit.

Parents must receive annual written explanations of their child's academic progress including assessment results, and assessment data is not a public record but may be shared with higher education institutions and independent research organizations for evaluation purposes.

The Authority must select an independent research organization beginning in the 2019-2020 school year to evaluate scholarship grant effectiveness, including learning gains of scholarship recipients compared to similar public school students and competitive effects on public school performance.

Nonpublic schools enrolling more than 10 students with scholarships must report aggregate standardized test performance data to the Authority, with public reporting of non-identifiable data permitted by December 1, 2020.