H. B. 2385
(By Delegates Doyle and Manuel)
[Introduced January 26, 1999; referred to the
Committee Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend article two, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section
thirteen-i; and to amend and reenact section nineteen,
article five of said chapter, all relating to education; the
state board of education; county boards of education;
establishing a secure residential school for juvenile status
offenders; and providing an alternative school at evening
classes or night school for children who are expelled or
suspended from regular school classes.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirteen-i; and that section nineteen, article five of said
chapter be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-13i. Responsibility for administration and provision of secure residential educational services.
The state board is responsible for the administration of
programs for the education of all school-age juveniles who have
been judicially declared as incorrigible, runaway children or
truant children or children who are otherwise declared status
offenders. The state board shall establish and operate a secure
residential school facility for all such school-age juveniles.
School-age juvenile means in this article any individual who
would, if not judicially declared incorrigible, runaway or
truant, or a status offender, be entitled to attend the public
schools in accordance with: (1) Section five, article two of
this chapter; (2) sections fifteen and eighteen, article five of
this chapter; or (3) section one, article twenty of this chapter.
Classroom teachers and other school personnel shall be hired
and provided as necessary to all secure residential school
juveniles by the state department of education to the extent
necessary to provide adequate and appropriate educational
opportunity. Adequate and appropriate educational opportunity
requires education services for secure residential school school-age juveniles on a twelve-month basis, excepting only
normal school holidays and those additional days determined by
the state board of education in consultation with the appropriate
department head to be necessary. School personnel are
responsible to the principal or lead teacher while providing
educational services but shall comply with rules established by
the state board to ensure security and safety in the facility.
Educational personnel employed at and by the secure residential
school facility are permitted to transfer to comparable positions
as school personnel of the state department of education if those
personnel meet the qualifications established for those positions
by the state department of education. The daily rate of pay of
educational personnel employed by the state department of
education shall be equivalent to the daily rate of pay of the
comparable position in the public schools of the county where the
secure residential school is located.
There shall be a separate line item account of the budget of
the state department of education for the education of school-age
juveniles in the secure residential school. All money that the
Legislature may annually appropriate for that purpose shall be
placed into this account. This account shall be used solely for
the education of such juveniles.
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-19. Night schools and other school extension activities;
use of school property for public meetings, etc.
County boards shall have authority to establish and maintain
evening classes or night schools, continuation or part-time day
schools, alternative schools, and vocational schools, wherever
practicable to do so, and shall admit thereto adult persons and
all other persons, including persons of foreign birth. County
boards may admit school-age children and youth to these classes
or schools under the circumstances prescribed by a state board of
education policy governing alternative education programs.
Provided, That children and youths who are expelled or suspended
from school are permitted to attend evening classes or night
school as an alternative school. County boards shall have
authority to use school funds for the financial support of such
schools and to use the schoolhouses and their equipment for such
purposes. Any such classes of schools shall be conducted in
accordance with the rules of the state board.
County boards shall have authority to provide for the free,
comfortable and convenient use of any school property to promote
and facilitate frequent meetings and associations of the people
for discussion, study, recreation and other community activities,
and may secure, assemble and house material for use in the study
of farm, home and community problems, and may provide facilities for the dissemination of information useful on the farm, in the
home or in the community.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a secure
residential school for juvenile status offenders; and to provide
an alternative school for children who are expelled or suspended
from regular school by permitting them to attend evening classes
or night school.
§18-2-13i is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.