What does North Carolina law say about teaching gender identity or sexuality in kindergarten through fourth grade?

What to do

1. Ask the principal in writing for your child’s course of study and the source of any supplementary instructional materials. State law requires the school to have a procedure for this.
2. Put the request in writing and keep a copy. The deadlines below only help you if you can show the date you asked.
3. The principal has 10 business days to respond, or to tell you it will take longer — and not longer than 20 business days from your request.
4. If the principal denies the request or does not respond, make the same request to the superintendent, stating what happened.
5. If the superintendent does not respond within 10 business days, you may appeal to the board of education within 20 business days of your request.
6. For a concern rather than a records request, notify the principal in writing. The school is to seek resolution within seven days.
7. If it is still unresolved after 30 days, the school must tell you why — and you may then request a hearing before the State Board of Education, or bring an action for a declaratory judgment.
8. Before starting a legal action, talk to an attorney. This guide explains the process; it is not advice about your situation.

What the law actually says

North Carolina’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, enacted in August 2023 as Session Law 2023-106, added § 115C-76.55 to the General Statutes. It reads:

Instruction on gender identity, sexual activity, or sexuality shall not be included in the curriculum provided in grades kindergarten through fourth grade, regardless of whether the information is provided by school personnel or third parties.

Two details in that sentence do a lot of work. It covers all three subjects — gender identity, sexual activity, and sexuality — and it applies whether the material comes from a teacher or from an outside speaker or organization.

What counts as "curriculum"

The statute defines the term rather than leaving it open:

For the purposes of this section, curriculum includes the standard course of study and support materials, locally developed curriculum, supplemental instruction, and textbooks and other supplementary materials, but does not include responses to student-initiated questions.

That definition is broader than the phrase "curriculum" suggests in everyday use. A supplementary handout, a locally chosen text, or a presentation by a visiting group all fall inside it.

What the law does not say

Being precise about the limits matters, because a parent who overstates the rule at a meeting loses the argument — and the school knows the text.

• It applies to grades K–4. It does not restrict instruction in grade five or above.
• It does not cover a teacher answering a question a student raised. The statute carves out responses to student-initiated questions in plain terms.
• It is not written as a provision about LGBT people. It restricts instruction on gender identity, sexual activity, or sexuality as subjects. Describing it as an LGBT-specific ban is not what the text says.
• It restricts curriculum. It does not, by its own terms, regulate who a teacher is or how they refer to themselves.

The separate notification rule

A different section, § 115C-76.45, deals with notifications about student health and wellbeing. It requires:

Prior to any changes in the name or pronoun used for a student in school records or by school personnel, notice to the parent of the change.

This is frequently reported together with the K–4 restriction, but it is a different provision with different scope: it is not limited to grades K–4.

Your right to see the materials

Under § 115C-76.35(b)(3), school units must adopt a policy letting parents learn what their child is being taught and where supplementary materials came from, including the process to inspect and review textbooks and supplementary instructional materials used in the classroom. That policy must also be published on the school’s website. Subsection (b)(4) of the same section requires a means for parents to object to those materials, consistent with G.S. 115C-98.

Because the school is required to have such a procedure, you can ask for it by name rather than asking a general question. That tends to produce a more useful answer.

If the school does not follow the rules

§ 115C-76.60 sets out a complaint process. You notify the principal; the school is to seek resolution within seven days. If the concern is unresolved after 30 days, the school must give you the reasons.

After that point the statute provides two routes:

• Request a parental concern hearing before the State Board of Education. It is heard by a qualified hearing officer who issues a recommended decision within 30 days, and the school unit bears the hearing officer’s costs.
• Bring an action for a declaratory judgment that the school unit’s procedure or practice violates this Part of the law. Where a parent is awarded injunctive relief, the statute directs that reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs be awarded to the parent.

The statute also states these remedies are in addition to any others available under other law.

Where this is unsettled

The law has drawn federal civil rights complaints and Title IX challenges since it took effect, and legislation has been proposed to expand how it can be enforced. Nothing here should be read as a prediction about how a court would resolve a particular dispute.