NC lawmakers make it easier to miss school if you work on a farm or ride a horse

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.

North Carolina lawmakers have made it easier for students to miss school to participate in agricultural and equestrian events and to work in farms.

The new state budget requires schools to allow at least two excused absences a year to participate in equestrian and agricultural events and up to five excused absences a year when a family has an immediate need for their children to work on the farm. The State Board of Education revised the state’s school attendance manual on Thursday to reflect the legislative-mandated changes.

“Those types of activities are critical for some of our youth that have interest in those areas,” state Rep. Jimmy Dixon, a Duplin County Republican and farmer, said in an interview Thursday with The News & Observer.

The attendance changes had been requested by the agricultural community. They were included in the state budget along with a new requirement that schools allow students to miss one to four hours a week to attend religious instruction during school hours.

Students are expected to make up any work they miss while they are absent.

Students will now be able to miss five days each school year due to the “immediate demands of the farm or the home in certain seasons of the year if determined appropriate by a teacher, principal, or superintendent based on guidelines set by the State Board.”

The superintendent would excuse the absences after determining that the family has shown by a “preponderance of the evidence” that the need is immediate. Examples of immediate demands under new state Board guidelines include:

The 2022 Census of Agriculture reported that North Carolina had 42,817 farms.

The equestrian event exemption would allow students at least two excused absences annually to participate in “equestrian sporting events, livestock shows, or similar agricultural events.”

Students participate in equestrian and agricultural events throughout the year, including the N.C. State Fair in Raleigh in October. But Sue Gray, executive director of the North Carolina House Council, said some school principals have given students an unexcused absence.

“We’re a major agricultural state,” Gray said in an interview Thursday. “We have a lot of youth involved in those activities, and what we found, or what our membership and everyone was telling us, is that some school principals would allow an excused absence to be able to show or present your livestock at an event, and other school principals would not.”

Gray said the state-mandated attendance changes will level the playing field for students.

“We just thought it was only fair,” Gray said. “You get an excused absence for other sports. This for many of these students is their sports activity.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2026 at 2:24 PM with the headline “NC lawmakers make it easier to miss school if you work on a farm or ride a horse.”