Senate Bill No. 2004
(
By Senators Tomblin (Mr. President) and Hall,
By Request of the Executive)
____________
[Introduced July 17, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §18-5-17 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to replacing certain current
screening requirements with compulsory comprehensive health
screening for students entering public school for the first
time in this state and students entering third grade, sixth
grade and ninth grade; defining terms; setting forth certain
requirements and prohibitions for county boards of education;
prohibiting certain county board actions for failure to
comply; requiring promulgation of legislative rules; requiring
state board analysis of current infrastructure in place to
implement requirements; requiring state board plan for
implementing requirements; and requiring reports.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-5-17 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-17
.
Kids first compulsory comprehensive health screening;
developmental screening for children under compulsory
school age.
(a)
Prior to July 1, 2011, all children entering public school
for the first time in this state shall be given prior to their
enrollments screening tests to determine if they might have vision
or hearing impairments or speech and language disabilities. County
boards
of education may provide, upon request,
such the screening
tests to all children entering nonpublic school. County boards
of
education shall conduct these screening tests for all children
through the use of trained personnel. Parents or guardians of
children who are found to have vision or hearing impairments or
speech and language disabilities shall be notified of the results
of these tests and advised that further diagnosis and treatment of
the impairments or disabilities by qualified professional personnel
is recommended.
(b) Effective July 1, 2011:
(1) Students entering public school for the first time in this
state, students entering third grade, students entering sixth grade
and students entering ninth grade are required to have a
comprehensive health screening by a licensed medical provider.
(2) Parents or guardians shall provide to the school
appropriate documentation of a comprehensive health screening
obtained within twelve months prior to the provision of the
documentation. The documentation shall be in the form of a comprehensive health screening certificate, and shall be provided
within forty-five days of a student entering public school for the
first time in this state or within forty-five days of a student
entering third, sixth or ninth grade, as applicable.
(3) For the purposes of this section, "comprehensive health
screening certificate" means a document developed by the Department
of Education and reported to the Legislative Oversight Commission
on Education Accountability and the Legislative Oversight
Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability prior to
December 1, 2010. The certificate shall be signed by a licensed
medical provider verifying that a comprehensive health screening
has been completed and shall include only the following
information: Student name, screening date, student height and
weight, and whether any referrals were issued for deficits found in
the screenings for hearing, vision, speech and language,
developmental and dental.
(4) County boards shall:
(A) Coordinate with parents or guardians and community health
care providers to ensure that the requirements of this subsection
are communicated to all parties;
(B) Enter all comprehensive health screening data in the West
Virginia Education Information System; and
(C) Coordinate with parents or guardians and community health
care providers to ensure that suspected deficits identified through
a comprehensive health screening are addressed through referral to specialty healthcare providers, county board student support
services or both.
(5) A county board may not refuse to enroll or bar the
attendance of a student for the failure or refusal to obtain a
comprehensive health screening, or for the failure or refusal to
disclose the contents of a screening required under this
subsection. A county board may not take action to compel a
student's parent or guardian to obtain a comprehensive health
screening for the student or to disclose the contents of a
screening required under this subsection.
(6) A county board shall provide developmental screening for
enrolled students if a comprehensive health screening identifies a
suspected deficit. Nothing in this subdivision limits the
authority of a teacher in conjunction with the student assistance
team to recommend developmental screening.
(b)(c) County boards
of education shall provide or contract
with appropriate health agencies to provide, upon the request of a
parent or guardian residing within the district, developmental
screening for their child or children under compulsory school
attendance age:
Provided, That a county board is not required to
provide
such developmental screening to the same child more than
once in any one school year.
Prior to providing the developmental
screening, the county board shall provide information on and
recommend a comprehensive screening as defined in subsection (b) of
this section. Developmental screening is the process of measuring the progress of children to determine if there are problems or
potential problems
or advanced abilities in the areas of
understanding language, perception through sight, perception
through hearing, motor development and hand-eye coordination,
health, and psycho-social or physical development. The boards
shall coordinate the provision of developmental screening with
other public agencies and the interagency plan for exceptional
children under section eight, article twenty of this chapter to
avoid the duplication of services and to facilitate the referral of
children and their parents or guardians who need other services.
The county boards shall provide notice to the public of the
availability of these services.
(c) (d) By October 1, 2010, the state board
of Education is
hereby authorized to shall promulgate
legislative rules consistent
with this section. The state superintendent is directed to apply
for federal funds, if available, for the implementation of the
requirements of this section.
(e) The state board and the Department of Health and Human
Resources shall collaborate in conducting an analysis of the
infrastructure currently in place for implementing the
comprehensive health screening requirements of this section. By
December 1, 2010, the state board and the Department of Health and
Human Resources shall report to the Legislative Oversight
Commission on Education Accountability and the Legislative
Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources
Accountability
on the results of their analysis.
(f) The state board shall develop a plan for implementing the
comprehensive health screening requirements of this section, and
report the plan to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance
and the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education
Accountability by December 1, 2010. The plan shall at least
include time and staff efficient methods of filing the
comprehensive health screening certificates and entering the
certificate data into the West Virginia Education Information
System.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a
compulsory
comprehensive health screening for students entering public school
for the first time in this state and students entering third grade,
sixth grade and ninth grade
.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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