Senate Bill No. 496
(By Senators Hunter, Dempsey, Barnes and Unger)
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[Introduced March 9, 2005; referred to the Committee
on Health and Human Resources; then to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-20-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to requiring the Department of
Health and Human Resources to reimburse county boards of
education for the cost of education for children with special
needs who are in foster care; and requiring the State Board of
Education in collaboration with the Department of Health and
Human Resources to promulgate rules designed to determine the
extra cost to be reimbursed.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-20-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. EDUCATION OF EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN.
§18-20-1. Establishment of special programs and teaching services
for exceptional children.
In accordance with the following provisions, county boards of
education throughout the state shall establish and maintain for all
exceptional children between five and twenty-one years of age
special educational programs, including, but not limited to,
special schools or classes, regular classroom programs,
home-teaching or visiting-teacher services for any type or
classification as the State Board shall approve. Special
educational programs shall continue to be provided to those
children who are at least twenty-one years of age and enrolled in
the above mentioned "special education program" prior to the first
day of September, one thousand nine hundred ninety-one, until they
reach twenty-three years of age. Provisions shall be made for
educating exceptional children (including the handicapped and the
gifted) who differ from the average or normal in physical, mental
or emotional characteristics, or in communicative or intellectual
deviation characteristics, or in both communicative and
intellectual deviation characteristics, to the extent that they
cannot be educated safely or profitably in the regular classes of
the public schools or to the extent that they need special
educational provisions within the regular classroom in order to
educate them in accordance with their capacities, limitations and
needs:
Provided, That for the school year beginning on the first
day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety, provisions shall be
made for educating exceptional children, including the handicapped, the gifted in grades one through eight, the pupils enrolled on the
first day of July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine, in the
gifted program in grades nine through twelve and the exceptional
gifted in grades nine through twelve. The term "exceptional
gifted" means those students in grades nine through twelve
identified as gifted and at least one of the following: Behavior
disorder, specific learning disabilities, psychological adjustment
disorder, underachieving, or economically disadvantaged.
Exceptional gifted children shall be referred for identification
pursuant to recommendation by a school psychologist, school
counselor, principal, teacher, parent or by self-referral, at which
time the placement process, including development of an
individualized education program, and attendant due process rights,
shall commence. Exceptional gifted children, for purposes of
calculating adjusted enrollment pursuant to section two, article
nine-a of this chapter, shall not exceed one percent of net
enrollment in grades nine through twelve. Nothing herein shall be
construed to limit the number of students identified as exceptional
gifted and who receive appropriate services. Each county board of
education is mandated to provide gifted education to its students
according to guidelines promulgated by the State Board and
consistent with the provisions of this chapter. Upon the
recommendation of a principal, counselor, teacher and parent, a
student who does not meet the gifted eligibility criteria may participate in any school program deemed appropriate for the
student provided that classroom space is available. In addition,
county boards of education may establish and maintain other
educational services for exceptional children as the State
Superintendent of Schools may approve.
County boards of education shall establish and maintain these
special educational programs, including, but not limited to,
special schools classes, regular class programs, home-teaching and
visiting-teacher services. The special education programs shall
include home-teaching or visiting-teacher services for children who
are homebound due to injury or who for any other reason as
certified by a licensed physician are homebound for a period that
has lasted or will last more than three weeks:
Provided, That
pupils receiving such homebound or visiting-teacher services shall
not be included when computing adjusted enrollment as defined in
section two, article nine-a, chapter eighteen of this code. The
State Board shall adopt rules to advance and accomplish this
program and to assure that all exceptional children in the state,
including children in mental health facilities, residential
institutions and private schools, will receive an education in
accordance with the mandates of state and federal laws:
Provided,
however, That commencing with the school year beginning on the
first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-one, all
exceptional children in the state in foster care and correctional facilities will receive an education in accordance with the
mandates of state and federal laws:
Provided further, That the
Department of Health and Human Resources shall reimburse any county
board of education for actual costs incurred in complying with the
requirement that they provide an education to children in foster
care with special needs in accordance with the mandates of state
and federal laws. The State Board of Education in collaboration
with the Department of Health and Human Resources shall promulgate
rules in accordance with the provisions of article three-b, chapter
twenty-nine-a, designed to determine the additional cost incurred
by a county board in meeting the requirements of providing
education to foster care children with special needs.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the Department of
Health and Human Resources to reimburse county boards of education
for the cost of education for children with special needs who are
in foster care. The State Board of Education, in collaboration
with DHHR, is directed to promulgate rules to determine the amount
of reimbursement.
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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