School Notification of Felony Delinquency Charges

As students across North Carolina head back to school, it is a good time to review the law that governs notifying schools about juvenile delinquency cases. Prior to raise the age, notification of charges for high school students required an understanding of the requirements under both the Juvenile Code for delinquency cases and the Criminal Code for cases in which students were accused of crimes committed at ages 16 and 17. Now,  under the post-raise the age statutory structure of juvenile jurisdiction, the Juvenile Code requirements will govern nearly all school notifications. Here are the headlines: school notification can only be made by a juvenile court counselor to the school principal and under the specific circumstances outlined in the Juvenile Code, and the information disclosed must remain confidential and may only be used by the school in the limited way allowed for by the law. When is school notification of delinquency cases authorized? Juvenile court records of delinquency cases, delinquency records maintained by the Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice (DACJJ), and law enforcement records concerning juveniles involved in delinquency matters are confidential unless there is a statute or court order that authorizes their release. G.S. 7B-3000; 7B-3001. One statute, G.S. 7B-3101, provides explicit statutory authority for school notification about certain delinquency matters. School notification is allowed only when a delinquency petition alleging a felony offense is filed, the case ceases to be a delinquency matter, either because the case is transferred to superior court (making it a criminal proceeding) [...]