On average, North Carolina is slightly ahead of the rest of the country in terms of getting kids ready for kindergarten – but children from lower-income families are lagging behind their peers, new federal data shows.

The trainings are part of a statewide initiative to address staffing shortages in the child care field.

A majority of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools staff signed a petition calling for a budget with no further cuts to positions, programs, wages and benefits, as well as additional staffing.

Cabarrus County Schools is implementing a temporary enrollment cap at W. R. Odell Primary School and W.R. Odell Elementary School.

North Carolina schools saw a decrease in crimes for the third year in a row, and saw the crime rate fall by about 8% to 7.43 incidents per 1,000 students

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools says it’s offering new grade-level instructional materials that families can access online in the event of absences due to illness, weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools says it’s planning to provide more “pass-through” funding for charter schools over the next few years. That’s a reflection of data that forecasts charter school enrollment growth.

Congress recently passed a spending plan that would maintain funding levels for federal education programs that many school districts feared could get cut.

Across the U.S., nearly 230,000 students were referred to law enforcement during the 2017-18 school year. Black students and students with mental and physical disabilities were referred at nearly twice their share of the overall student population. That’s what a Center for Public Integrity analysis of U.S. Department of Education data found. In North Carolina and South Carolina, law enforcement was also brought in at higher rates when it came to Black and disabled students.