H. B. 2816
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegate Trump)
[By Request of the Executive]
[Introduced March 1, 2005; referred to the
Committee on Health and Human Resources then Finance.]
FN:
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §5-1E-1, §5-1E-2,
§5-1E-3, §5-1E-4 and §5-1E-5; and to amend and reenact
§18-2-6a and §18-2-7a of said code, all relating to promoting
healthy lifestyles; creating a Healthy Lifestyles Office in
the Department of Education and the Arts; establishing the
functions of the Office; creating a special revenue account;
establishing a voluntary menu labeling program; requiring
physical activity in the schools; and encouraging the use of
health foods and beverages in the vending machines of schools.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §5-1E-1, §5-1E-2,
§5-1E-3, §5-1E-4 and §5-1E-5; and that §18-2-6a and §18-2-7a of
said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 5. GENERAL POWERS AND AUTHORITY OF THE GOVERNOR,
SECRETARY OF STATE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL; BOARD
OF PUBLIC WORKS; MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES, COMMISSIONS,
OFFICES, PROGRAMS, ETC.
ARTICLE 1E. HEALTHY WEST VIRGINIA PROGRAM.
§5-1E-1. Findings and purposes.
The Legislature finds and declares that the rise in obesity
and related weight problems accompanied by the resulting incidence
of chronic disease has created a health care crisis that burdens
the health care infrastructure of the state. The Legislature also
finds that the State of West Virginia must take an informed,
sensitive approach to communicate and educate the citizens of the
state about health issues related to obesity and inappropriate
weight gain. The Legislature further finds that the state must
take action to assist West Virginia citizens in engaging in
healthful eating and regular physical activity. The Legislature
further finds that the state must invest in research that improves
understanding of inappropriate weight gain and obesity. These
efforts are needed to coordinate the state's interest in improving
the health of its citizens and in reducing the cost of health care.
Therefore, it is the purpose of this article to create, as an
integral part of the Department of Education and the Arts, an
entity to coordinate the efforts of all agencies to prevent and
remedy obesity and related weight problems and to ensure that all
citizens are being educated on this serious health risk that is
affecting the state.
§5-1E-2. Creation of the Office of Healthy Lifestyles.
There is hereby created the Office of Healthy Lifestyles within
the Department of Education and the Arts. The management of this
office shall be provided in the manner determined by the Secretary
of the Department of Education and the Arts to be in the best
interest of the state and its citizens.
§5-1E-3. Powers and duties of the Office.
The Office of Healthy Lifestyles shall:
(a) Establish a Healthy Lifestyle Coalition to assure
consistency of the public health and private sector approach to
dealing with programs that address the problems that affect
overweight and obese individuals; to provide a forum for discussing
the issues that affect healthy lifestyles and to identify best
practices that can be replicated. By the first day of July, two
thousand five, the Governor shall appoint members of the Coalition
whose terms shall be for a period of four years, and the members
may be reappointed to a second term. The terms may be staggered by
the Governor to assure continuity of experience on the coalition.
Members may not be compensated but shall receive reimbursement for
expenses incurred while performing the business of the coalition.
The First Lady of West Virginia serves as a special advisor to the
Coalition. The Coalition shall meet monthly for at least the first
eighteen months of the Coalition to develop and implement an action
plan to meet the goals established by the Coalition;
(b) Establish a clinical advisory committee to assure a
unified approach using the latest research to assure consistency in
program development;
(c) Establish a voluntary menu labeling program for
restaurants in the state pursuant to the provisions of this
article;
(d) Coordinate higher education training programs for dietary
and exercise physiology students with rural health care providers;
(e) Coordinate existing health promotion initiatives to assure
clear, concise and consistent communication;
(f) Solicit, accept and expend grants, gifts, bequests,
donations and other funds from any source for programs that will
enable the state to accomplish the goals of this program;
(g) Develop a cross-agency series of goals to ensure
consistency throughout the system of providers and agencies working
in the area of improving lifestyles;
(h) Establish as a goal to increase the prevalence of healthy
weight among all people in the state because obesity leads to
diabetes, heart disease, strokes and kidney failure. These
diseases, often arising in older age as a result of unhealthy
lifestyles that began during a person's youth, place an undue
financial burden on individuals, the health care industry and state
health care programs;
(i) Consider the resources of the local health departments and
recommend ongoing relationships, as appropriate, between local
health departments, family resource networks, faith-based
organizations, cooperative extension services, farm bureaus and
other health care providers;
(j) Encourage the development of incentives for participation in employee wellness programs. Incentives may be based upon, but
should not be limited to, the employee's completion of health
questionnaires or participating in healthy lifestyles initiatives,
and may use experiences of successful initiatives that have
occurred in this state. The action plan should include among its
targets, state government employees in this incentive program;
(k) Build upon existing initiatives that focus on any of the
coalition's goals, soliciting input from these initiatives and
eliminating duplication of efforts;
(l) Report its progress to the Legislative Oversight
Commission on Health and Human Resource Accountability.
§5-1E-4. Voluntary menu labeling program.
(a) The West Virginia Healthy Lifestyles program will develop
a menu labeling program. The program will develop a universally
recognized logo to be marketed to the public indicating
participating restaurants. The program will work with state
facilities which serve food, which are hereby mandated to
participate in the first phase of the program. A list of
dieticians shall be made available to participants to provide the
nutritional analysis to appropriately label menu items.
(b) Beginning the first day of July, two thousand five, those
restaurants who voluntarily choose to participate in the menu
labeling program shall label their menu items with the total number
of calories, the grams of saturated fat and trans fat, grams of
carbohydrates and milligrams of sodium, per serving, as usually
prepared and offered for sale. This information shall be listed in a clear, conspicuous manner adjacent to each food or beverage item
on a standard printed menu or on a menu board system or similar
signage adjacent to each item. This labeling is not required of
condiments, daily specials or temporary menu items.
(c) Upon submitting the labeled menu to the Office of Healthy
Lifestyles, the universally recognized logo shall be issued to
participating restaurants to be placed on the door or window of the
establishment.
(d) Marketing to public employees shall take place through all
state agencies:
Provided, That the West Virginia Public Employees
Insurance Agency, the Bureau for Medical Services, and the West
Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission shall aggressively market
this program to their members for the purposes of health promotion
among their members.
(e) The Office of Healthy Lifestyles shall report to the
Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources
Accountability the number of participants, the impact on menu
design as established by survey of participating facilities and the
results of consumer satisfaction surveys all designed by the Office
of Healthy Lifestyles.
§5-1E-5. Creation of a Healthy Lifestyles Fund.
There is hereby created in the State Treasury a separate
special revenue account, which shall be an interest bearing
account, to be known as the "Healthy Lifestyles Fund." The special
revenue account shall consist of all appropriations made by the
Legislature, income from the investment of moneys held in the special revenue account and all other sums available for deposit to
the special revenue account from any source, public or private. No
expenditures for purposes of this section are authorized from
collections except in accordance with the provisions of article
three, chapter twelve of this code and upon fulfillment of the
provisions set forth in article two, chapter eleven-b of this code.
Any balance remaining in the special revenue account at the end of
any state fiscal year does not revert to the general revenue fund
but remains in the special revenue account and shall be used solely
in a manner consistent with this article. No expenses incurred
under this section shall be a charge against the general funds of
the state.
CHAPTER 18. EDUCATION.
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-6a. Sale of healthy beverages and soft drinks in schools.
(a) In order to generate funding for necessary programs and
supplies, county boards may permit the sale of healthy beverages
and soft drinks in county high schools except during breakfast and
lunch periods. as follows:
(1) During a school day, soft drinks may not be sold in areas
accessible to students in an elementary school, middle school or
junior high school through vending machines on the premises, in
school stores or in school canteens or through fund raisers by
students, teachers, groups or by any other means.
(2) Those high schools which permit the sale of soft drinks
through vending machines must also offer for sale healthy beverages in an amount equal to the number of soft drinks offered for sale.
(3) The sale of such healthy beverages and soft drinks shall
be in compliance with the rules of the National School Lunch
Program and the School Breakfast Program of the State Board and the
Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture,
which became effective on the seventeenth day of June, one thousand
nine hundred eighty-five: Provided, That, if under such the rules,
the sale of soft drinks shall become becomes prohibited, such the
rules shall may not prohibit the sale of soft drinks in high
schools in the state of West Virginia. Seventy-five percent of the
profits from the sale of healthy beverages and soft drinks shall be
allocated by a majority vote of the faculty senate of each school
and twenty-five percent of the profits from the sale of healthy
beverages and soft drinks shall be allocated to the purchase of
necessary supplies by the principal of the school.
(b) For the purposes of this section:
(1) "School day" means the period of time between the arrival
of the first student at the school building and the end of the last
instructional period; and
(2) "Healthy beverage" means water, one hundred percent fruit
juice, low-fat milk, and any beverage that contains no more than
ten grams of sugar per serving.
§18-2-7a. Legislative findings; required physical education;
program in physical fitness.
(a) The Legislature hereby finds that obesity is a problem of
epidemic proportions in this state. There is increasing evidence that all segments of the population, beginning with children, are
becoming more sedentary, more overweight, and more likely to
develop health risks and diseases including Type II Diabetes, high
blood cholesterol and high blood pressure. The Legislature further
finds that the promotion of physical activity during the school day
for school children is a crucial step in combating this growing
epidemic and in changing the attitudes and behavior of the
residents of this state toward health promoting physical activity.
(b) As a result of these findings, the State Department of
Education shall ensure that each child enrolled in the public
schools of this state actively participates in physical education
classes during the school year to the level of their abilities as
follows:
(1) Kindergarten to and including grade five. -- Not less than
thirty minutes of physical education, including physical exercise
and age appropriate physical activities, for not less than three
days a week.
(2) Grade six to and including grade eight. -- Not less than
one full period of physical education, including physical exercise
and age appropriate physical activities, each school day of one
semester of the school year.
(3) Grade nine to and including grade twelve. -- Not less than
one full course credit of physical education, including physical
exercise and age appropriate physical activities which shall be
required for graduation and the opportunity to enroll in an
elective lifetime physical education course: Provided, That children participating in interscholastic sports are not subject to
the provisions of this subdivision.
(c) Enrollment in physical education classes and activities
required by the provisions of this section shall not exceed, and
shall be consistent with, state guidelines for enrollment in all
other subjects and classes.
(d) The State Board of Education shall prescribe a program
within the existing health and physical education program which
incorporates the testing, awards recognition, fitness events and
incentive programs designed under the auspices of the President's
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and which requires the
participation through grade nine of each student and of each school
in the state in both the challenge program and the state champion
program of the council. Other acceptable alternatives for testing
include the Fitnessgram Fitness Test and the Physical Activity
Lifetime Award(PALA) record. The program shall include the
modified test for exceptional students. Each school in the state
shall participate in National Physical Fitness and Sports Month in
May of each year and shall make every effort to involve the
community it serves in the related events.
(e) All students shall have their body mass index measured and
reported to the State Board of Education after training or written
documentation is provided on the appropriate methodology for
assessing the body mass index.
NOTE: The purpose of the bill is to create the West Virginia
Healthy Act of 2005. It includes the creation of the Healthy Lifestyles Office in the Department of Education and the Arts,
defines its responsibilities, establishes a special revenue
account, and establishes a voluntary menu labeling program. In
addition, this bill creates standards for physical activity in
schools and provides incentives for schools which provide healthy
foods and beverages.
§§5-1E-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are 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.