
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2962
(By Delegates Williams, Shaver, Perry and Swartzmiller)
(Originating in the Committee on Finance)
[April 5, 2001]
A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-two, article five,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
sections two and thirteen-b, article nine-a of said chapter,
all relating to public education; including secretaries in the
definition of school employees who may receive training to
provide specialized health procedures; providing for the
commissioner of the bureau of public health to receive
recommendations from the council of school nurses and
promulgate rule for training and standards for performing
specialized health procedures; including adults enrolled in
approved family literacy programs in the net enrollment count
of the public school support plan on a full-time equivalency
basis; and clarifying the calculation and allocation of funds to the legislative reserve fund.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-two, article five, chapter eighteen of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that sections two and
thirteen-b, article nine-a of said chapter 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.

County boards shall provide proper medical and dental
inspections for all pupils attending the schools of their county
and shall further 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.

Each county board shall employ full time at least one school
nurse for every one thousand five hundred kindergarten through
seventh 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.

Any person employed as a school nurse shall 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.

Specialized health procedures that require the skill,
knowledge and judgment of a licensed health professional, shall 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 herein shall prohibit 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", "secretary I",
"secretary II" and "secretary III", as defined in section eight,
article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.

Any school 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 shall be 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 such the aide
has received the training, pursuant to this section, then an
employee in the field of special education shall not be is not
required to perform the specialized health care procedures.

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.

There shall be established 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 director of the state division
of commissioner of the bureau for public health who shall consult
with the state department of education. The state division of
health commissioner then has the authority to promulgate rules
propose rules for legislative promulgation, pursuant to 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.

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
state division of health the rules proposed by the commissioner.
ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.
§18-9A-2. Definitions.

For the purpose of this article:

"State board" means the West Virginia board of education.

"County board" or "board" means a county board of education.

"Professional salaries" means the state legally mandated
salaries of the professional educators as provided in article four,
chapter eighteen-a of this code.

"Professional educator" shall be synonymous with and shall
have the same meaning as "teacher" as defined in section one,
article one, chapter eighteen of this code.

"Professional instructional personnel" means a professional
educator whose regular duty is as that of a classroom teacher,
librarian, counselor, attendance director, school psychologist or
school nurse with a bachelors degree and who is licensed by the
West Virginia board of examiners for registered professional nurses. A professional educator having both instructional and
administrative or other duties shall be included as professional
instructional personnel for that ratio of the school day for which
he is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis in
appropriate instruction, library, counseling, attendance,
psychologist or nursing duties.

"Service personnel salaries" shall mean means the state
legally mandated salaries for service personnel as provided in
section eight-a, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.

"Service personnel" shall mean means all personnel as provided
for in section eight, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this
code. For the purpose of computations under this article of ratios
of service personnel to adjusted enrollment, a service employee
shall be counted as that number found by dividing his number of
employment days in a fiscal year by two hundred: Provided, That
the computation for any such person employed for three and one-half
hours or less per day as provided in section eight-a, article four,
chapter eighteen-a of this code shall be calculated as one half an
employment day.

"Net enrollment" means the number of pupils enrolled in
special education programs, kindergarten programs and grades one to
twelve, inclusive, of the public schools of the county. Commencing
with the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-eight, Net enrollment further shall
include includes adults enrolled in regular secondary vocational
programs existing as of the effective date of this section and
family literacy programs approved by the department of education
pursuant to guidelines adopted by the state board: Provided, That
net enrollment shall include no more than one thousand such adults
counted on the basis of full-time equivalency and apportioned
annually to each county in proportion to the adults participating
in regular secondary vocational programs and approved family
literacy programs in the prior year counted on the basis of
full-time equivalency: Provided, however, That no tuition or
special fees beyond that required of the regular secondary
vocational student is charged for such adult students.

"Adjusted enrollment" means the net enrollment plus twice the
number of pupils enrolled for special education. Commencing with
the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand
nine hundred ninety, adjusted enrollment means the net enrollment
plus twice the number of pupils enrolled for special education,
including exceptional gifted, plus the number of pupils in grades
nine through twelve enrolled for honors and advanced placement
programs, plus the number of pupils enrolled on the first day of
July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine, in the gifted program in grades nine through twelve: Provided, That commencing with the
school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety, no more than four percent of net enrollment of
grades one through eight may be counted as enrolled in gifted
education and no more than six percent of net enrollment of grades
nine through twelve may be counted as enrolled in gifted education,
exceptional gifted education (subject to the limitation set forth
in section one, article twenty of this chapter) and honors and
advanced placement programs for the purpose of determining adjusted
enrollment within a county: Provided, however, That nothing herein
shall be construed to limit the number of students who may actually
enroll in gifted, honors or advanced placement education programs
in any county: Provided further, That until the school year
beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-two, the preceding percentage limitations shall not restrict
the adjusted enrollment definition for a county to the extent that
those limitations are exceeded by students enrolled in gifted
education programs on the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred eighty-nine: And provided further, That no pupil may be
counted more than three times for the purpose of determining
adjusted enrollment. Such enrollment shall be adjusted to the
equivalent of the instructional term and in accordance with such eligibility requirements and rules as established by the state
board. No pupil shall be counted more than once by reason of
transfer within the county or from another county within the state,
and no pupil shall be counted who attends school in this state from
another state.

"Levies for general current expense purposes" means
ninety-eight percent of the levy rate for county boards of
education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to the
provisions of section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this
code.

"Basic resources per pupil" for the state and the several
counties means the total of: (a) Ninety-five percent of the
property tax revenues computed at the levy rate for county boards
of education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to the
provisions of section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this
code, but excluding revenues from increased levies as provided in
section ten, article X of the Constitution of West Virginia; and
(b) basic state aid as provided in sections twelve and thirteen of
this article, but excluding the foundation allowance to improve
instructional programs as provided in section ten of this article,
and excluding any funds appropriated for the purpose of achieving
salary equity among county board employees, this total divided by
the number of students in adjusted enrollment: Provided, That beginning with the school year commencing on the first day of July,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-one, and thereafter, the
foundation allowance for transportation costs as provided in
section seven of this article shall also be excluded and the total
shall be divided by the number of students in net enrollment:
Provided, however, That any year's allocations to the counties of
the eighty percent portion of the foundation allowance to improve
instructional programs, as provided in section ten of this article,
shall be determined on the basis of the immediately preceding
school year's basic resources per pupil.
§18-9A-13b. Allowance for legislative reserve fund.
Commencing with the school fiscal year beginning on the first
day of July, two thousand one, and every fiscal year thereafter,
funds which accrue from allocations due to the reduction in the
basic foundation allowance as a result of the decreases in net and
adjusted enrollment from the preceding school fiscal year shall be
deposited in a special revenue fund which is hereby created in the
state treasury, designated the "legislative reserve fund". The
fund shall be an interest bearing account and shall be appropriated
by the Legislature allocated to the legislative reserve fund. The
total distribution of the funds allocated to the legislative
reserve fund shall be appropriated by the Legislature for
expenditure for public school purposes as determined by the Legislature.