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Legislation Would Help Students Spend More Time With Parents In Military

(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

New legislation would make it easier for military parents to spend more time with their children while on leave.

Senate Bill 230 would require the State Board of Education to draft rules allowing students at least two excused absences each school year to be with parents who are U.S. military members called to duty or on leave from deployment.

The News and Observer reports the legislation was passed by the Senate and is making its way through the House.

Democratic Senator Don Davis is a prime sponsor of the bill. Davis notes that a large number of North Carolinians are currently serving in the military.

Another House bill passed in April would allow an excused absence for students to attend a legislative event or visit the General Assembly.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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