COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR


Senate Bill No. 206

(By Senators Caldwell and Rowe)

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[Originating in the Committee on Education;

reported February 7, 2003.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section eight, article five, chapter eighteen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to authorizing aides to supervise students who are undergoing in-school suspension.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eight, article five, chapter eighteen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. AUTHORITY; RIGHTS; RESPONSIBILITY.

§18A-5-8. Authority of certain aides to exercise control over pupils; compensation; transfers.
(a) Within the limitations provided herein in this section, any aide who agrees to do so shall stand in the place of the parent or guardian and shall exercise such authority and control over pupils as is required of a teacher as defined and provided in section one of this article. The principal shall designate aides in the school who agree to exercise that authority on the basis of seniority as an aide and shall enumerate the instances in which the authority shall be exercised by an aide when requested by the principal, assistant principal or professional employee to whom the aide is assigned.
(b) Provided, That the The authority does provided for in subsection (a) of this section may not extend to suspending or expelling any pupil, participating in the administration of corporal punishment or performing instructional duties as a teacher or substitute teacher. However, the authority shall extend to supervising students undergoing in-school suspension if the instructional duties required by the supervision are limited solely to handing out class work and collecting class work. The authority to supervise students undergoing in-school suspension may not include actual instruction.
(c) An aide designated by the principal under this subsection (a) of this section shall receive a salary not less than one pay grade above the highest pay grade held by the employee under section eight-a, article four of this chapter and any county salary schedule in excess of the minimum requirements of this article.
(b) (d) An aide may not be required by the operation of this section to perform noninstructional duties for an amount of time which exceeds that required under the aide's contract of employment or that required of other aides in the same school unless the assignment of such the duties is mutually agreed upon by the aide and the county superintendent, or the superintendent's designated representative, subject to board approval. The terms and conditions of the agreement shall be in writing, signed by both parties, and may include additional benefits. The agreement shall be uniform as to aides assigned similar duties for similar amounts of time within the same school. Aides shall have the option of agreeing to supervise students and of renewing related assignments annually. Provided, That should If an aide elect elects not to renew the previous agreement to supervise students, the minimum salary of the aide shall revert to the pay grade specified in section eight-a, article four of this chapter for the classification title held by the aide and any county salary schedule in excess of the minimum requirements of this article.
(c) (e) For the purposes of this section, aide shall mean and include means any aide class title as defined in section eight, article four of this chapter regardless of numeric classification.
(d) (f) An aide may transfer to another position of employment one time only during any one half of a school term, unless otherwise mutually agreed upon by the aide and the county superintendent, or the superintendent's designee, subject to board approval: Provided, That during the first year of employment as an aide, an aide may not transfer to another position of employment during the first one-half school term of employment unless mutually agreed upon by the aide and county superintendent, subject to board approval.
(e) (g) Regular service personnel employed in a category of employment other than aide who seek employment as an aide shall hold a high school diploma or shall have received a general educational development certificate and shall have the opportunity to receive appropriate training pursuant to subsection (10), section thirteen, article five, chapter eighteen of this code and section two, article twenty of said chapter.