COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 53
(By Senators Hunter, Dempsey and Unger)
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[Originating in the Committee on Education;
reported February 24, 2006.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-5-22 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §18-9A-25 of said
code, all relating to changing the required ratio of school
nurses in each county from one nurse per every one thousand
five hundred students in kindergarten through seventh grade to
one nurse per every seven hundred fifty students in preschool
through twelfth grade.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-5-22 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that §18-9A-25 of said code be
amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-22. Medical and dental inspection; school nurses; specialized health procedures; establishment of
council of school nurses.
(a) County boards shall provide proper medical and dental
inspections for all pupils attending the schools of their county
and have the authority to take any other action necessary to
protect the pupils from infectious diseases, including the
authority to require from all school personnel employed in their
county, certificates of good health and of physical fitness.
(b) Each county board shall employ full time at least one
school nurse for every
one thousand five hundred seven hundred
fifty kindergarten pre-school through
seventh twelfth grade pupils
in net enrollment or major fraction thereof:
Provided, That each
county shall employ full time at least one school nurse:
Provided,
however, That a county board may contract with a Public Health
Department for services considered equivalent to those required by
this section in accordance with a plan to be approved by the State
Board:
Provided further, That the State Board shall promulgate
rules requiring the employment of school nurses in excess of the
number required by this section to ensure adequate provision of
services to severely handicapped pupils.
(c) Any person employed as a school nurse must be a registered
professional nurse properly licensed by the West Virginia Board of
Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses in accordance with
article seven, chapter thirty of this code.
(d) Specialized health procedures that require the skill, knowledge and judgment of a licensed health professional, may be
performed only by school nurses, other licensed school health care
providers as provided
for in this section, or school employees who
have been trained and retrained every two years who are subject to
the supervision and approval by school nurses. After assessing the
health status of the individual student, a school nurse, in
collaboration with the student's physician, parents and in some
instances an individualized education program team, may delegate
certain health care procedures to a school employee who shall be
trained pursuant to this section, considered competent, have
consultation with, and be monitored or supervised by the school
nurse:
Provided, That nothing in this section prohibits any school
employee from providing specialized health procedures or any other
prudent action to aid any person who is in acute physical distress
or requires emergency assistance. For the purposes of this section
"specialized health procedures" means, but is not limited to,
catheterization, suctioning of tracheostomy, naso-gastric tube
feeding or gastrostomy tube feeding. "School employee" means
"teachers", as defined in section one, article one of this chapter
and "aides", as defined in section eight, article four, chapter
eighteen-a of this code. Commencing with the school year beginning
on the first day of July, two thousand two, "school employee" also
means "Secretary I", "Secretary II" and "Secretary III", as defined
in section eight, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code:
Provided, however, That a "Secretary I", "Secretary II" and
"Secretary III" shall be limited to the dispensing of medications.
(e) Any school service employee who elects, or is required by
this section, to undergo training or retraining to provide, in the
manner specified in this section, the specialized health care
procedures for those students for which the selection has been
approved by both the principal and the county board, shall receive
additional pay of at least one pay grade higher than the highest
pay grade for which the employee is paid:
Provided, That any
training required in this section may be considered in lieu of
required in-service training of the school employee and a school
employee may not be required to elect to undergo the training or
retraining:
Provided, however, That commencing with the first day
of July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine, any newly employed
school employee in the field of special education is required to
undergo the training and retraining as provided
for in this
section:
Provided further, That if an employee who holds a class
title of an aide is employed in a school and the aide has received
the training, pursuant to this section, then an employee in the
field of special education is not required to perform the
specialized health care procedures.
(f) Each county school nurse, as designated and defined by
this section, shall perform a needs assessment. These nurses shall
meet on the basis of the area served by their regional educational
service agency, prepare recommendations and elect a representative
to serve on the council of school nurses established under this
section.
(g) There shall be a council of school nurses which shall be convened by the State Board of Education. This council shall
prepare a procedural manual and shall provide recommendations
regarding a training course to the Commissioner of the Bureau For
Public Health who shall consult with the State Department of
Education. The commissioner then has the authority to promulgate
a rule in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code, to implement the training and to create
standards used by those school nurses and school employees
performing specialized health procedures. The council shall meet
every two years to review the certification and training program
regarding school employees.
(h) The State Board of Education shall work in conjunction
with county boards to provide training and retraining every two
years as recommended by the council of school nurses and
implemented by the rule promulgated by the commissioner.
ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.
§18-9A-25. State allowance for additional school nurses and state
teacher of the year salary.
(a) To provide for the support of the additional number of
school nurses that were required by changing the school nurse ratio
in section twenty-two, article five of this chapter during the two
thousand six regular session of the Legislature from requiring one
school nurse for every one thousand five hundred kindergarten
through seventh grade pupils to one school nurse for every seven
hundred fifty pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade pupils, annually, there shall be appropriated from the general revenue fund
an amount sufficient to distribute to each county board an amount
determined by multiplying the additional number of school nurses
required in each county on a full-time equivalency basis by that
county's average state minimum funded salary as computed in
determining the basic allowance for professional educators under
section four of this article plus an additional amount for fixed
charges computed by using the rates specified or determined in
section six of this article plus an additional amount for the
public employees insurance agency computed by multiplying the
number of nurses determined above by the average premium rate for
all county board of education employees established by the public
insurance agency finance board pursuant to the provisions of
section twenty-four of this article.
(b) To provide for the support of a sabbatical for the state
teacher of the year, there shall be appropriated for that purpose
from the general revenue fund an amount equal to the state average
contractual salary for teachers for the year in which the teacher
is selected as state teacher of the year.