West Virginia bills on school discipline, vaccine exemptions on the move
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CHARLESTON -- After weeks of inaction, a bill providing teachers greater authority to boot disruptive children from classrooms is on its way to a vote in the House of Delegates, while a state Senate committee tightened up school vaccine requirements after they were loosened by the House.
House Bill 5105, eliminating the vaccine requirements for public virtual schools, will be on third reading and up for passage Friday in the state Senate.
HB 5105, as it came over from the House, would eliminate vaccine requirements for school students for those participating in one of the two statewide virtual public schools or future county-level virtual public charter schools except when those students are participating in activities supervised by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission.
The bill was later amended by the House to expand vaccine exemptions to students attending private or parochial schools in the state, as well as create a religious exemption for all vaccines in public and private schools as long as a parent or guardian presents a letter stating the reasons for the religious exemption request.
The Senate Health and Human Resources Committee amended the bill further Wednesday, removing the religious exemption section that would have allowed parents or guardians to send a letter opting their children out of school immunization requirements. The bill also requires immunizations for virtual school students if they are also participating in in-person school programs.
Doctors and health professions both for and against the bill spoke to committee members Wednesday. Senate Health Committee Chairman Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, is a radiologist and said Wednesday that he did not support the bill, but it was the will of the Senate Republican caucus for the committee to consider the bill.
"This bill would not be on the agenda if it were my choice," Maroney said. "I took an oath to do no harm and in my heart I think we're doing harm to this state. If I don't say that, I won't be able to sleep."
On the House side, Senate Bill 614 -- relating to elementary behavior intervention and safety -- will be on third reading Friday with amendments pending.
SB 614 would require students in kindergarten through sixth grade to be placed in a county behavioral intervention program if their behavior in the classroom is violent, threatening or intimidating toward staff and other students and impedes the learning environment. The intervention program could either be through the county school system or with a neighboring system.
Students would be placed in behavioral intervention programs at the discretion of the teacher, principal and vice principal. If there is a disagreement between the teacher and administrators, a teacher can appeal to the county superintendent. The bill also would not override provisions of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
For counties without behavioral intervention programs, students would be removed from the classroom following the incidents and suspended from school for the next one to three days while alternative learning accommodations are made, with the student receiving instruction through alternative learning.
Parents would be required to pick up the student either immediately or by the end of the school day. The student would be prohibited from returning home by school bus. Law enforcement would be notified of any student not picked up by a parent or guardian by the end of the school day.
The student would not be able to return to school until a risk assessment is done by a school psychologist. Upon completion, the student would return to school on a probationary period between five and 10 days. If another incident occurs, the student would be placed in an alternative learning environment for the remainder of the semester or school year.
The bill passed the Senate on Feb. 12, but didn't get taken up by the House Education Committee until Monday but was postponed for a few days after discussion became heated. The House had passed a similar bill earlier in the session that state Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, had said she wouldn't take up. Grady -- the lead sponsor of SB 614 -- defended her bill before the House Education Committee.
"What we're seeing now are discipline issues where students have outbursts that are uncontrollable, they'll throw things across the room, they'll scream in the face of teachers, they'll threaten to hit teachers or threaten to hit other students, and ruin a classroom," Grady said. "We should feel for those kids ... but we need to look at the majority and help the majority of kids who are there to learn."
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com