State Constitution

  1. Right to Education. The state constitution grants the children of North Carolina the right to attend public school.1 In Leandro v. State,2 the N.C. Supreme Court interpreted the state constitution to require the state to provide students in the state with the opportunity to attain a sound basic education. Leandro, the holding in which was reaffirmed in Hoke County v. State3, was a school finance case, the import of which is that the state must provide adequate resources so that each child has the opportunity to leave the public schools with sufficient academic skills that he or she can function in society, make informed choices with regard to issues that affect the local and national community, successfully engage in post-secondary education or vocational training, and compete on an equal basis with others in further formal education or gainful employment.4 The Court did not comment on the relationship between this right and a school district’s right to exclude children from the educational process by suspending or expelling them.

    In 2010, the N.C. Supreme Court held in King v. Beaufort Co. Bd. of Education5 that students in North Carolina have a constitutional right to continued educational services during a long-term suspension unless the school board can establish that the board has an important or significant reason for refusing to provide some type of alternative education. The court grounded its reasoning on the “equal access” provision in the N.C. Constitution, which guarantees every North Carolina child the right to participate in the public schools.6 It established that exclusion from alternative services during suspension is subject to an “intermediate” standard of review (rejecting the student’s argument that such an exclusion should be subject to strict scrutiny). Interpreting its standard of intermediate scrutiny, the Court stated, “Students who exhibit violent behavior, threaten staff or other students, substantially disrupt the learning process, or otherwise engage in serious misconduct may be denied access. For these students, school officials will have little or no difficulty articulating an important or significant reason for denying access to alternative education under the state standard of intermediate review.”7
  2. Due Process
    1. Like the federal constitution, the North Carolina Constitution requires that property not be taken “but by the law of the land.” 8 This has been interpreted as requiring fundamental due process: the right to notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard.9 Nevertheless, the courts in North Carolina have generally grounded their due process opinions in the federal constitution rather than the state constitution.10

1 N.C. Const., Article I, Section 15 and Article IX, Section 2.

2 346 N.C. 336, 488 S.E.2d 249 (1997).

3 358 N.C. 605, 599 S.E.2d 365 (2004).

4 346 N.C. at 347, 488 S.E.2d 255.

5 364 N.C. 368, 704 S.E.2d 259 (2010).

6 N.C. Const. Article IX, Sec. 2

7 364 N.C. at 378, 704 S.E.2d at 265.

8 N.C. Constitution, Article 1, §19.

9 Jordan v. Civil Service Board, 153 N.C. App. 691; 570 S.E.2d 912 (2002); Affordable Care v. N.C. Board of Dental Examiners, 153 N.C. App. 527; 571 S.E.2d 52 (2002)

10 See, e.g., In Re Roberts, 150 N.C. App. 86, 563 S.E. 2d 37 (2002) appeal dismissed as improvidently granted, 356 N.C. 660 (2003).

School Discipline Law Affecting NC Public School Students