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North Carolina lawmakers approved for Hurricane Helene relief on Wednesday, as the western part of the state continues recovery efforts.

The package, which legislative leaders called a “first step” in their response, will provide a needed transfusion of dollars to qualify the state for federal money and help officials prepare for the Nov. 5 election.

It passed both the and unanimously.

“The recovery that is going to have to be done is something that is going to be a herculean task,” House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) told reporters ahead of the vote.

The General Assembly is set to return on Oct. 24 to allocate more money, once lawmakers have a better sense of specific funding needs. A November session is also planned to “deal with other matters,” Moore said.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said their first priority was securing federal dollars, but that further state money was coming.

“As far as the total that the state is going to expend, no, this is not all of it,” Berger said. “Not by a long shot.”

The vast majority of the money will serve as matching funds to qualify for FEMA federal disaster programs. The federal government has pledged 100% reimbursement for six months following the disaster.

Another $16 million will help back pay salaries for nutrition staff whose schools have been closed in the storm’s aftermath. And the bill grants impacted schools more flexibility to adjust their calendars and add remote teaching as needed.

Lawmakers also expanded the resources and flexibility for western counties to conduct their elections. The State Board of Elections will get $5 million — more than they initially requested — and 25 western counties will be eligible to make changes to early voting and polling places. (A resolution from the state board originally included 13 counties.)

“While the Board of Elections made a good effort, we want to extend it to additional counties that were impacted,” Berger said.

Those changes could include more flexibility in appointing election judges, changing precinct locations, and “curing” of spoiled absentee ballots — all at the discretion of county election offices.

Throughout a press conference and debate Wednesday, lawmakers representing districts to the west , and emphasized that the road to recovery would be years long. Some, like Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson), fought back tears.

“People are trying to start their lives over again,” Balkcom said.

Moore and Berger said they met with Gov. Roy Cooper and Democratic legislative leaders in recent days to discuss the bill. Cooper, speaking at a press conference to discuss ongoing storm recovery efforts at around the same time lawmakers were voting, expressed appreciation for the legislation. The bill now heads to his desk for final approval.

Still, concerns among some Democrats lingered Wednesday — including Rep. Caleb Rudow (D-Buncombe), who filed a bill extending voter registration deadlines but failed to get GOP support to move it forward.

How education leaders, local advocacy groups want relief money spent

Ahead of the legislature’s return to Raleigh, officials and organizations across the state made funding requests as they continue to evaluate damages and look toward recovery.

The State Board Education has outlined more than $150 million needed to repair and recover public schools across the state. State superintendent Catherine Truitt said in a statement Wednesday that she was “really pleased and grateful” with the school-related funding in the initial relief package.

“I know the NCGA will appropriate additional funding in terms of building and equipment damage in due time,” Truitt said. “This is a great first step to helping our schools, staff and students recover.”

And in sent Tuesday evening to lawmakers, a network of faith, health care and civic groups called the NC Inclusive Disaster Recovery Network outlined a range of recommendations for how funding is used.

“Policies should ensure relief and rebuilding efforts reach all North Carolinians by minimizing barriers to access and stabilizing conditions,” the letter said.

They urged lawmakers to allow local governments flexibility to hire or expand communications as needed; to send funds “for public interest law firms,” and to create an eviction moratorium “similar to the response to COVID.”

A letter from the North Carolina Association of Educators called on lawmakers to, among other things, protect all public-school staff from pay and leave reductions for the duration of the crisis, ensure districts are not penalized for student enrollment declines due to temporary relocations, and provide meals for students in hard-hit counties.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on and .

While issues have plagued the federal government’s revamp of the application for student aid, West Virginia’s higher education leaders say help from Gov. Jim Justice and the state Legislature have caused the state to be much better off than others.

The 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms debuted in January, than it’s typically available.

In April, over , allowing West Virginia students to bypass filling out the form and still be eligible for state school aid including the Promise Scholarship and the Higher Education Grant Program.

In addition to the state of emergency, redirecting about $83.2 million from the state’s rainy day fund to the state Higher Education Policy Commission to be distributed to college-bound students for the fall college 2024 semester.

“By having the flexibility to make these adjustments, we have been able to alleviate student concerns about being able to afford to go to college this fall,” said Jessica Tice, senior director of communication for the state HECP. “We look forward to seeing final enrollment and award numbers in the coming months.”

The commission awarded funding through the Higher Education Grant Program to 43 ,510 students for the 2024-25 school year, up from 31,867 students awarded in the 2023-2024 year, Tice said. She added that the commission does not anticipate that every student who was awarded funding will use it.

In addition, 30 students who qualified for the Promise Scholarship but did not have a current FAFSA on file were awarded the scholarship as a direct result of the change, she said.

As of Monday, 63,291 West Virginia students had completed the FAFSA, Tice said.

Tice said the additional funding from the Legislature allowed the HEPC to increase the amount of the grant award from $3,300 last year to $6,800 this year.

“This is an unprecedented one-time amount for students who have financial need,” Tice said.

Also, the HEPC provided funding to institutions to allow them to provide $2,000 College Access Grants to students with more need, she said.

Tice said the concerns about the 2024-2025 FAFSA form are largely at the colleges and university level now. The federal Department of Education recently announced that colleges and universities won’t be able to submit batch corrections to files for aid this cycle, which will put a burden on the institutions, she said.

West Virginia University is receiving and processing the 2024-25 FAFSA and disbursements are on schedule, said April Kaull, executive director of communications. The first day of classes at WVU is Aug. 21.

“We want students and their families to know that they should apply for federal or state aid for fall 2024,” Kaull said. “If they’ve put it off or become frustrated and thrown in the towel, we can help. It is not too late to get financial aid in place for a successful start to the fall semester.”

Tice said higher education officials are concerned about the rollout of the 2025-2026 FAFSA form, which is expected to be

“As we continue working at the state level to do everything we can to award students state aid despite their FAFSA status, we are very concerned about the impact of another delay,” Tice said. “The FAFSA allows students to maximize their financial aid beyond state programs, and we want all of our students — especially those with financial need — to be able to access all of the funding they are eligible to receive.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com. Follow West Virginia Watch on and .

Nearly all districts concerned about a looming fiscal cliff are taking measures to prepare for it, likely to hit when federal pandemic relief aid ends in 2023, according to Rand’s . 

The findings, from a survey of 291 district leaders polled this spring, suggest school officials may not be using relief aid exclusively for salary bumps or full-time teachers because it is not sustainable. 

While districts are hiring staff well beyond pre-pandemic numbers, the positions expanding the most are substitutes, paraprofessionals and tutors — with a quarter surveyed saying they are “avoiding certain staff hires to prevent later layoffs,” the report stated, alluding to full-time teachers.

Many are also using the funds to roll out short-term tutoring and summer programs for students’ academic recovery, or make one-time investments in school infrastructure. 

About a sixth of districts are adding to “rainy day funds” and hiring non-teaching personnel on yearly contracts for “flexibility.”

Researchers also believe the hiring boom is the key factor fueling higher vacancy numbers in the field — not a “big quit” of qualified educators. 

Districts that employed, for example, 100 teachers in 2019, are now seeking 120 new hires to meet students’ increased academic and mental health needs. 

“You could imagine that it might be easier on districts to scale up and scale down their number of substitutes than their number of classroom teachers,” said Melissa Kay Diliberti, an assistant policy researcher at Rand. 

Districts also received a range of funds dependent on their student population — creating a widely varying picture of pandemic-era hiring from district to district, even within state lines.

Large, urban school districts serving mostly students of color are trying to hire more staff, said Diliberti. “These are the schools that probably got the most extra money and that are therefore able to do the most expansion.”

Seven critical findings from Rand’s report: 

1. Nearly 80% of districts have already hired staff beyond pre-pandemic levels

Most of America’s districts are still trying to expand — 94% of large districts, for example, are expanding non-teaching staff, like bus drivers, counselors, paraprofessionals and tutors. And on average 77% of districts have now hired on more teachers and/or substitutes than in 2019. 

Districts’ huge increases in staffing are straining education labor markets, not an exodus from the field, the Rand report states. 

“The stories that have tried to tell this, you know, ‘slew of teachers have been leaving the profession and that’s what’s causing the teacher shortage’ is not quite true,” Diliberti said, adding that there’s still cause for concern about educators’ low morale. “Even if they’re not actually leaving the profession, teachers who are unhappy at work aren’t good for students, right?” 

2. About half of district leaders predict a looming “fiscal cliff”; 87% of those concerned have taken steps to prepare 

More superintendents and district leaders are concerned about an impending fiscal cliff this year than in Spring 2021. And about half of leaders are concerned, across all school types: urban to rural, whether serving majority students or color or majority white students. 

“It’s not necessarily inevitable — districts are aware of the possibility of a fiscal cliff and they can take action like in the coming years to try to prevent it,” Diliberti said. 

Strategic one-time or short term investments, such as investing in school infrastructure, launching summer learning programs or hiring in yearly contracts, “will allow them to more easily reduce the load of staff if and when in the future they don’t have the money to keep them at their current levels,” she added.

3. Substitutes, paraprofessionals, and tutors are the jobs that have expanded the most since the pandemic began

The positions have a direct connection to the pandemic’s strain on schools. Substitutes were districts’ lifeline when faced with numerous full-time teachers in quarantine, while paraprofessionals and tutors “address the unfinished instruction from several years of pandemic-related disruptions to schooling.” 

Bus drivers are also in high demand; about a third of districts have not yet increased their number but are trying. Rand’s report notes a possible reason for the shortage of drivers could be the extensive qualifications and concerns about working in group settings during the pandemic. 

4. Low-poverty districts are more likely than high-poverty districts to have expanded staff above pre-pandemic levels 

Notably, 68% of high-poverty districts have already increased their teaching force beyond pre-pandemic numbers. In comparison, 84% of low-poverty districts have expanded ranks. 

Researchers think the gap could be due in part to a historical trend: higher-poverty schools are harder to staff. Experienced educators are with better working conditions and better pay.

“Teacher labor markets [are] not one thing. Some districts … even before the pandemic started, struggled to hire teachers — in particular, high poverty schools, and sometimes schools in rural areas,” Diliberti explained. “It’s always harder for districts to staff those positions and to staff teachers at the secondary level, especially in math and science.”

5. 17% of districts anticipate ‘large’ teacher shortages next year

While a majority of leaders expect small labor gaps to impact schools next year, large shortages are concerning urban and high poverty leaders the most. 

Suburban and low-poverty district leaders do not anticipate any large shortages. 

On the whole, large principal shortages do not seem to be on leaders’ radar. 

6. Findings suggest a current national substitute shortage 

Over half of districts have expanded substitute teaching staff beyond 2019 levels, and 76% are still trying to expand in anticipation of the fiscal cliff and to meet pandemic-related staffing shortages. 

“In some ways I don’t feel like this substitute teacher shortage is as new or as sexy of a story as a teacher shortage because it’s kind of always been a problem…I think that’s one of the reasons it’s gotten minimized,” Diliberti said. 

Sixty percent of districts increased pay or benefits for substitutes. The average daily rate is 6% higher than in 2019 — now about $122 per day versus $115 per day pre-pandemic. Urban districts have and continue to pay the most: $146 per day in the latest school year, about $30 higher than rural districts. 

7. 90% of districts changed operations because of shortages at some point during the 2021-22 school year 

While some changes were short-term, like asking admin to sub for teachers in quarantine, researchers say the figure is an indicator that even this latest pandemic school year was not at all business as usual. Nearly all American districts had to adapt to major challenges. 

“Operational issues are really just taxing us at every level… As an example, [there were] three different schools on three different days that I had to close because I had too many call-offs and not enough staff to replace them, or substitutes to replace them,” one superintendent told Rand.