ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2840
(By Delegates Campbell, Rowan, Pasdon, Cooper, Perry and Eldridge)
[Passed March 14, 2015; in effect July 1, 2015.]
AN ACT to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-5-45a, relating to authorizing a county board of education in certain circumstances to provide instruction to students during emergency closures under an alternative plan to make up lost days of traditional instruction in a manner that meets the instructional day and time requirements for not more than four instructional days of accumulated time so that the board is not required to repurpose other days or add additional days of instruction to maintain compliance in reaching the mandatory one hundred eighty separate instructional days.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-5-45a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-45a. Alternate instruction plan for emergency closure days and times.
(a) The purpose of this section is to allow optional plans for school systems to provide instruction that meets the school calendar requirements for instructional days and time in section forty-five of this article during an emergency closure of school facilities. An “emergency closure” means hours or days during the instructional term when it is necessary to close schools for disease epidemic, hazardous weather conditions, law-enforcement emergencies, inoperability of school buses or other equipment necessary to the school's operation, damage to a school building, or other temporary circumstances due to utility failure rendering the school building unfit for school use. Instruction provided during an emergency closure through a plan established in accordance with this section meets the instructional day and time requirements in section forty-five of this article for not more than four instructional days of accumulated time, including full instructional days, and, therefore, does not require the repurposing of other days pursuant to subsection (e), section forty-five of this article, or adding additional days of instruction to maintain compliance in reaching the mandatory one hundred eighty separate instructional days established in said section forty-five.
(b) Prior to the first day of August of each school year, a county board of education may submit to the State Board of Education a plan for providing instruction to students during emergency closures which includes at least the following:
(1) The method or methods of providing the instruction including, but not limited to delivery using lessons on electronic devices provided to students, lessons posted on a board or school website and distribution of emergency closure day packets of instructional assignments, or any combination of these instructional delivery methods. The method or methods must accommodate any differences in the ability of students to access the instructional assignments and to complete them within a reasonable time period:
(2) The method for ensuring that each classroom teacher develops and makes available a sufficient number of instructional assignments for each course taught by the teacher to cover the amount of emergency closure time specified in the plan;
(3) The method for ensuring that the instructional assignments are based on current instructional progress to the extent possible and necessary, and are updated or replaced by the classroom teacher when needed;
(4) The method for informing students of the emergency closure instructional assignments, the order in which they are to be completed during emergency closures and the consequences of not completing them; and
(5) The method for requiring students to complete the instructional assignments, the time period for completion and for assigning a grade for the student’s work.
(c) Subject to approval by the State Board, the county board may implement the plan for the applicable school year.
(d) A county board may submit its plan for providing instruction during an emergency closure as a part of its school calendar for approval by the State Board.