RALEIGH – North Carolina’s Child Fatality Task Force voted Tuesday to urge recurring funding for school nurses, social workers and counselors. Its broader agenda also seeks more school psychologists, with Meta settlement proceeds identified as a possible funding source.
The Nov. 10 vote advances a recommendation in the task force’s 2026 action agenda. That agenda calls for recurring state money to move public schools toward recommended staffing ratios for student support personnel.
The recommendation is advisory. It does not appropriate money or change state law. Any recurring funding would require action by the General Assembly during the 2027 legislative session.
Whitney Belich, co-chair of the task force’s Intentional Death Prevention Committee, said North Carolina needs about four times its current number of school social workers and psychologists to meet nationally recommended ratios. Districts often use a combination of state and local money for those positions, leaving lower-wealth and rural counties with fewer staff members available to serve students.
Belich also said school nurses reported 579,000 counseling sessions with students during the 2024-25 school year. About 18,000 involved depression, suicidal thoughts or other mental-health concerns. North Carolina received an “F” in mental health in the 2025 Child Health Report Card, and the 2026 state budget did not include new support-personnel funding.
The panel’s vote comes as state officials consider how to use money from North Carolina’s settlement with Meta. The North Carolina Department of Justice said the company made a first payment of about $45.2 million on Oct. 1. Under the settlement, Meta must pay the state at least $451 million and could pay as much as $645 million over several years.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson has urged lawmakers to use some of the settlement money for school nurses and mental-health professionals. The General Assembly controls how the proceeds are spent.
The task force did not select a specific appropriation amount Tuesday. Its vote places the staffing proposal among the recommendations that lawmakers can consider when they return to Raleigh.
Sources
- North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force 2026 Action Agenda
- News From The States report on the Nov. 10 vote
- North Carolina Department of Justice Meta settlement payment release
Photo Credit: North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh, photographed July 18, 2026, by P. Hughes via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0. Contextual file photograph, not the Nov. 10 task-force meeting. Cropped and resized.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.