This bill prohibits gambling on prediction markets in North Carolina by amending state gambling laws to explicitly include these platforms. It defines a prediction market as any online or physical platform where people bet money on the outcome of future events, making such activities a Class 2 misdemeanor for operators and participants. The law applies to both residents and non-residents offering services to North Carolina users and takes effect on December 1, 2026. Additionally, the bill allocates $10,000 in state funds to the State Lottery Commission to support enforcement efforts starting July 1, 2026.
This North Carolina bill creates a temporary Artificial Intelligence in Education Task Force to study how AI tools are used in schools and to develop rules for their regulation. The task force will include representatives from the state government, universities, and private businesses, and it must submit its findings by March 2028. Separately, the legislation requires the State Board of Education to create standards for teaching AI concepts to students from kindergarten through grade 12, covering topics like how AI works, ethical use, and critical thinking. To support these efforts, the bill appropriates $250,000 to provide professional development for teachers and administrators.
This bill establishes a new licensing framework in North Carolina for artificial intelligence chatbots that handle health information, requiring operators to obtain permission from the Department of Justice before offering such services. To qualify for a license, companies must submit detailed technical documentation, prove insurance coverage, and demonstrate that their systems meet rigorous safety and efficacy standards through independent testing and expert review. Once licensed, operators are required to implement strong data security measures, report breaches within 24 hours, provide clear disclosures about the chatbot's artificial nature, and allow users to access or delete their personal data. The state's Department of Justice will enforce these rules by conducting regular physical and digital inspections of chatbot systems, including reviews of source code and data practices.
HB 1186 directs the North Carolina Collaboratory to create a pilot program that provides participating law enforcement agencies with new, more accurate drug-detecting technology to replace traditional color-based field tests. The bill requires these new devices to be portable, avoid relying on visual color changes for identification, and generate digital records for auditing and tracking emerging substances. Additionally, the program must conduct a comprehensive study to measure the technology's impact on case outcomes, officer safety, and the accuracy of drug testing across different communities.
This bill requires North Carolina public schools to teach artificial intelligence concepts to students from kindergarten through grade 12. It mandates that the State Board of Education create standards covering how AI works, its real-world uses, and ethical issues like privacy, bias, and academic honesty. To support this new requirement, the state will provide $100,000 in funding for the 2026-2027 school year to help schools implement the curriculum. The law takes effect on July 1, 2026, and allows AI instruction to be part of existing computer science classes in middle and high school.
This bill, known as the Government Modernization Act of 2026, directs North Carolina's Department of Information Technology to study and implement blockchain technology to improve security, reduce fraud, and increase transparency in state records and transactions. To support these efforts, the legislation appropriates $50 million from the Information Technology Reserve Fund to modernize outdated systems and expand online government services for residents and businesses. The Department must submit a progress report within 12 months of the law taking effect and provide annual updates to the General Assembly, while a new Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Digital Governance is created to supervise the project. The act is set to become effective on July 1, 2026, and will remain in force until June 30, 2031.
This North Carolina bill allocates $4.4 million in recurring state funds starting in the 2026-2027 fiscal year to support tax fraud detection efforts. The money will be given to the Department of Revenue to expand its existing contract with the Government Data Analytics Center for software, data analysis, and technical infrastructure. These resources are intended to improve the state's ability to identify tax evasion and manage collection cases through enhanced analytics and managed services. The legislation takes effect on July 1, 2026, and directs the department to continue working with the analytics center's public-private partnerships.
This bill establishes the North Carolina Children's Safe Screens Act to protect minors under 18 from online harms by regulating large internet platforms. It creates a new Online Safety Division within the Department of Justice to enforce rules that ban deceptive design tactics, require parental notification for child accounts, and mandate strict privacy settings by default. Covered platforms, defined as those with over five million users in the state and $25 million in annual revenue, must submit annual impact assessments and provide tools for parents to manage screen time and content. The legislation empowers the Attorney General to file civil lawsuits against non-compliant companies, with potential fines of up to $500,000 per violation, while funding enforcement through a dedicated state fund.
This bill requires North Carolina public schools to create policies limiting the use of wireless devices like phones and tablets during instructional time. It mandates that students in kindergarten through fifth grade cannot use any such devices in classrooms, while older students face stricter limits on device usage and access to non-instructional content like social media. To support these restrictions, the legislation appropriates funds to hire one teacher assistant for every classroom serving students in grades K through five. Additionally, the law grants parents the right to opt out of their children being issued wireless devices by the school and ensures that printed materials are used for instruction in elementary and middle schools.
This bill establishes a two-year pilot program in North Carolina to test data-driven systems aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism, which currently affects one in four public school students. The Department of Public Instruction will select a single public school unit serving up to 15,000 diverse students to implement a vendor-provided platform that offers real-time monitoring, automated family communication, and targeted intervention strategies. Appropriated funds totaling $75,000 will cover technology costs, staff training, and program evaluation, with the pilot running from the 2026-2027 fiscal year through the 2027-2028 fiscal year. By the end of the program, the department must report findings on attendance improvements and operational efficiencies to determine if the initiative should be expanded statewide.
