House Bill 816, the “Voucher School Transparency Act,” would increase reporting, accountability, and safety requirements for nonpublic schools that accept North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship funds. It expands the information those schools must provide to the State Education Assistance Authority, including tuition and fee documentation, background-check policies for staff, annual student progress reports, standardized test results, graduation rates, school ownership and enrollment data, accreditation status, fire inspection documentation, curriculum information, and limited information about students with disabilities and IEPs. The bill also requires participating schools to maintain an in-state facility for in-person instruction, while still allowing remote-only courses in addition to in-person offerings.
The bill further strengthens testing and audit requirements. It directs participating schools to administer standardized tests to scholarship students in specified grades, report aggregate results, and retain certain performance data. It also requires schools receiving a threshold amount of scholarship funding, or enrolling at least 70 scholarship students, to obtain regular independent audits and submit those audits to both the Authority and the State Auditor. In addition, the bill requires the State Auditor to review at least three of those audits each year and report findings to legislative oversight committees, including information on taxpayer fund usage and student academic outcomes. The bill also updates a prior law directing UNC’s Office of Learning Research to recommend standardized tests for grades 3 through 8 and ties those recommendations to the tests used by participating schools.
In state-law terms, HB816 would amend G.S. 115C-562.5 governing nonpublic schools that accept scholarship grant students and G.S. 147-64.6 governing the State Auditor’s responsibilities. It would add new compliance obligations for private schools participating in the Opportunity Scholarship program and create a recurring audit-review duty for the Auditor. The bill also modifies a 2024 session law to connect future test selection for scholarship schools to recommendations from UNC’s Office of Learning Research. Its practical effect would be to increase state oversight of voucher-funded private schools and make more information available to state agencies, while keeping some student-level and safety-related records confidential.
The available legislative history shows no recorded committee debate or votes, so there is no documented floor or committee sentiment to assess. Based on the bill’s content, the measure appears to be framed as a transparency and accountability proposal rather than a funding expansion or restriction. Its supporters likely view it as a way to ensure public dollars used for scholarships are tracked and that participating schools meet basic academic, financial, and safety standards.
The main points of contention are likely to involve private-school autonomy, administrative burden, and privacy. Nonpublic schools may object to the expanded reporting, testing, audit, and safety documentation requirements, especially the annual audit threshold and the requirement to provide information about tuition, staffing, enrollment, and students with disabilities. Supporters, by contrast, are likely to emphasize oversight of taxpayer-funded scholarships, academic transparency, and school safety. Because no transcripts or votes are available, these concerns are inferred from the bill’s structure rather than from recorded debate.
HB816 would expand and tighten statutory requirements for nonpublic schools participating in the Opportunity Scholarship program, including new annual reporting, testing, audit, safety, and facility requirements under G.S. 115C-562.5. It would also impose a new annual duty on the State Auditor to review at least three school audits and report findings to legislative committees, and it would revise a 2024 session law to align standardized test selection for scholarship schools with UNC recommendations. The bill primarily affects private schools receiving state scholarship funds, the State Education Assistance Authority, the State Auditor, and related oversight entities.
No committee transcripts or votes are available, so there is no direct record of debate or formal support/opposition. The bill’s title and provisions suggest a generally pro-accountability, pro-transparency posture, with the likely intent of increasing public confidence in voucher-funded private schools. At the same time, the added compliance obligations suggest that affected schools may view the measure as more burdensome than current law.
Likely areas of contention include the scope of state oversight over private schools, the cost and administrative burden of annual testing and audits, and the privacy implications of reporting school and student information. Private-school advocates may object to mandatory standardized testing, audit frequency, disclosure of tuition and staffing data, and reporting related to students with disabilities and IEPs. Supporters are likely to argue that these requirements are necessary because the schools receive public scholarship funds and should therefore be held to stronger accountability and safety standards.