Section 3.12 of House Bill 268, a budget technical corrections bill ratified in August 2026 and signed by Governor Josh Stein, creates the North Carolina High School Redesign Commission. The 15-member body is housed administratively in the Department of Public Instruction but operates independently of it. The commission must submit its first report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by April 30, 2027, and will terminate on June 30, 2031, or upon filing its final annual report, whichever comes first.
The commission's membership is laid out in the statute. Two members are appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Speaker of the House, and two on the recommendation of the Senate President Pro Tempore. The Governor appoints one member. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the president of the UNC System, the president of NC Independent Colleges and Universities, and the president of the NC Community College System each serve or may designate a representative. The chief executives of four organizations — myFutureNC, the NC Chamber of Commerce, BEST NC, and SparkNC — also serve or may designate a representative. The commission chair, chosen from among the four legislative appointees, appoints two additional members: a community college president and a local superintendent. The State Board of Education has no seat on the commission.
At the State Board of Education's August 5, 2026 meeting, DPI Senior Director of Government Affairs and Strategy Geoff Coltrane told board members the commission would operate independently of DPI. Board members asked what authority the commission would exercise, why the board received no seat, how it would be funded, and how its work relates to the separate Blue Ribbon Commission on teacher pay. The bill itself sets no dollar appropriation for the commission; instead, it directs the chair to designate one or more of the four named organizations to plan and manage meetings and draft reports, with money appropriated to DPI to contract with them divided equally among those organizations unless otherwise agreed.
A pilot already in place
The same legislative package that carried the commission language also established a pilot program involving Mooresville Graded School District and Mitchell Community College. Under that pilot, Mooresville may replace any high school graduation credit requirement except English and Mathematics with community college courses or locally developed competency-based education courses consistent with a student's pathway. Mitchell Community College may enroll Mooresville students before eleventh grade. The pilot provides an in-state example of the flexible credit and competency-based approaches the redesign commission is directed to study for statewide application.
Scope of the commission's work
The statute lists 12 minimum duties. They include studying flexible diploma requirements, access to apprenticeships and internships, industry-recognized credentials, partnerships among public schools and higher education institutions, personalized pathways for core graduation requirements, modular credit-bearing alternatives to semester or yearlong courses, competency-based alternatives to time-bound courses, extending learning beyond school walls, uses of artificial intelligence to expand career exploration and work-based learning, alternative funding models for a statewide learning ecosystem, career exploration for middle school and early high school students, and evaluation of programs in partnership with the Office of Learning Research at the NC Collaboratory.
The commission must meet at least four times annually. A quorum is six members, and voting by proxy is not allowed. The commission's first report, due next April, must include all recommendations approved by a majority of members and a summary of evaluations of competency-based education programs and high school redesign efforts implemented during the current school year. The commission originates from Senate Bill 579, the Transforming the High School Experience Act, introduced by Senator Michael Lee. Its language was later added to Senate Bill 1006 before being incorporated into HB 268.