Starting and running a small school in North Carolina

What the statute requires

• North Carolina's abuse-reporting statute states no deadline at all — and there is a second duty

  Section 7B-301 says “Any person or institution who has cause to suspect” shall report, and states no deadline. Privilege is abolished as a defense under § 7B-310, and the duty reaches staff, volunteers, contractors and board members alike. There is a second, separate duty: § 14-318.6 requires any adult who knows of a violent offense, sexual offense or misdemeanor child abuse against a juvenile to report immediately to law enforcement, on top of the DSS report. Failure to report, or knowingly preventing another from reporting, is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Telling the head of school is not reporting.

  N.C.G.S. § 7B-301, § 7B-309, § 7B-310; second duty § 14-318.6 · last read 20 July 2026

• Fire and health inspection guidance applies to private schools, and is waived for home schools in a residence

  Both parts require nonpublic schools to submit to reasonable fire, health and safety inspections by state, county and municipal authorities, and DNPE's guidance adds: obtain a certificate of occupancy before initial occupancy, and have the local fire marshal and health department inspect the facility before classes begin and annually after. Section 115C-564 waives safety and sanitation inspection requirements where a home school operates in a private residence — do not read the private-school guidance onto a home school.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-548 / § 115C-556; § 115C-564; NC DNPE private school requirements · last read 20 July 2026

What you file, and with whom

• The notice of intent to operate goes to DNPE — and so does the closure

  Send the Division of Non-Public Education a notice of intent to operate carrying the school's name and address and the names of its owner and chief administrator, and notify it when the school closes. For a home school, DNPE asks that the notice be sent five days before the initial opening date.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-552 (Part 1); § 115C-560 (Part 2); applied to home schools via § 115C-564 · last read 20 July 2026

• The annual immunization report is due 1 November

  Numbers attending, numbers without required immunizations within 30 days of first attendance, and medical and religious exemption counts. NCDHHS applies this to private schools and asks for kindergarten, seventh-grade and twelfth-grade status. Separately, no child may attend any school — public, private or religious — without a certificate of immunization on file, and the parent has 30 calendar days from the first day of attendance to obtain required immunizations before the child may no longer attend.

  N.C.G.S. § 130A-155, § 130A-155(c) · last read 20 July 2026

What you have to keep

How this part is kept in Pearspark: attendance is a register per school year, immunizations are tracked against the list your state sets, enrollment and withdrawal dates sit on the student record, and each student's permanent records stay retrievable by the family and by a receiving school even if the school closes. How records work.

• One year, at the principal office — North Carolina's only stated retention period

  Records of the grade 3, 6 and 9 standardized tests (and the grade 11 competency test) must be available at the school's principal office for one year after the testing, for annual State inspection. This binds all nonpublic schools, not only scholarship ones. Note the grade set is narrower than the Opportunity Scholarship testing duty — a school taking scholarships is doing both, on different schedules.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-549(b) (Part 1); § 115C-557(b) (Part 2) · last read 20 July 2026

• Home schools test every student, every year

  Not just grades 3, 6 and 9 as for conventional private schools. Section 115C-564 makes the standardized achievement testing annual for each enrolled student, covering English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics, with results kept on file at the home school and available for annual state inspection.

  Where this is unsettled: Whether the grade-11 competency test applies to home schools is not asserted here. The structure of § 115C-564 would imply it does, but neither state page states it for home schools.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-564 with § 115C-549 / § 115C-557 · last read 20 July 2026

School-choice program conditions

• The Opportunity Scholarship background check covers exactly one person

  Section 115C-562.5(a)(2) requires the school to “Provide to the Authority a criminal background check conducted for the staff member with the highest decision-making authority.” One person — not all staff. This requirement is widely overstated in secondary write-ups, and schools budget for a full-staff screening they do not owe under this section.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-562.5(a)(2) · last read 28 July 2026

• Test performance data is due to the Authority by 15 July

  Section 115C-562.5(a)(4): “Test performance data shall be submitted to the Authority by July 15 of each year.” Testing is annual for scholarship students in grades 3 and up: the Authority designates the test for grades 3 and 8, grade 11 is the ACT, and you choose a national test for the rest. You must also give each scholarship parent an annual written explanation of progress including test scores, and report graduation rates. The tuition and fee schedule filing under (a)(1) goes to the Authority through MyPortal on the same annual cycle, and is required even in a year with no scholarship students.

  Where this is unsettled: Only the (a)(4) test-performance deadline was re-read verbatim on 2026-07-28. The 15 July date for the (a)(1) tuition and fee schedule comes from the 2026-07-20 research; confirm it against NCSEAA's current school instructions before treating the two as one deadline.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-562.5(a)(1), (a)(4) · last read 28 July 2026

• Seventy scholarship students triggers a CPA review — and the statute sets no deadline for it

  Section 115C-562.5(a)(6) requires a financial review by a certified public accountant for each school year in which the school enrolls 70 or more students receiving scholarship grants, on an AICPA-recognized basis by an NC-licensed CPA. The statute sets no due date. The 120-days-after-fiscal-year-end rule circulating for this is NCSEAA administrative guidance, so treat it as an agency deadline that can move without legislation.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-562.5(a)(6) · last read 28 July 2026

• Above 25 scholarship students in any grade, your aggregate results become a public record

  Section 115C-562.5(c) binds a nonpublic school enrolling more than 25 students in any grade whose tuition and fees are paid in whole or in part with a scholarship grant: provide and retain information on student test performance. Aggregate performance for grades 3, 8 and 11 is reported and is itself a public record; data for all other grades is retained. Test performance data must be retained under (c)(2), but no period is stated.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-562.5(c)(1)–(2) · last read 28 July 2026

• Close mid-year without telling DNPE and the owner cannot open another school

  Section 115C-562.5(e): a scholarship school that terminates operation during its regular schedule and fails to report the closure date to the Division within 14 days, or fails to return funds owed, makes any other nonpublic school opened by the same owner or chief administrator ineligible for scholarship grants until the Authority is satisfied the repayment obligation is met. The disqualification follows the person, not the entity.

  Where this is unsettled: The 10-school-day withdrawal submission in MyPortal and the 30-calendar-day refund are NCSEAA administrative rules, not statute.

  N.C.G.S. § 115C-562.5(e) · last read 28 July 2026