A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT ensuring that CERTAIN teachers who receive full‑time fellowships to support their intellectual and professional development continue to receive employee benefits for the period of their fellowships.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑302.1 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(g1)	Teachers Receiving Professional Fellowships. – The State Board of Education shall provide that a teacher who (i) receives a full-time fellowship that the State Board recognizes as a professional recognition and an unusual honor conferred on very few teachers and (ii) leaves his or her teaching position to participate in that fellowship program shall be allowed an experience increment for service as a teacher for the period of that teacher's participation in the fellowship program, if the teacher returns to teaching. The State Board of Education shall adopt rules on the implementation of this subsection."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 135‑40.2(a) is amended by adding a new subdivision to read:
"(a)	The following persons are eligible for coverage under the Plan, on a noncontributory basis, subject to the provisions of G.S. 135‑40.3:
. . . 
(5a)	Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e) of this section, a teacher on official leave of absence while completing a full‑time fellowship program in accordance with rules adopted by the State Board of Education pursuant to G.S. 115C-302.1(g1)."
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.