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Introduced Version Senate Bill 246 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted

Senate Bill No. 246

(By Senators Trump, Blair, Leonhardt and Williams)

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[Introduced January 16, 2015; referred to the Committee on Education.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-17-10, relating to exempting each current child care worker employed on or before June 1, 2015, at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia, from requirement to have an associate's degree.

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 section, designated §18-17-10, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 17. WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF AND THE BLIND.

§18-17-10. Requirement for child care workers to obtain associates degrees: findings; current child care workers exempt from requirement; experience recognized as qualification for substantially similar work.

            (a) Findings -- The Legislature finds that for generations, the children of West Virginia enrolled at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia have received wonderful care, attention, education and love from all who work there, including the devoted child care workers employed there whose jobs are now threatened because of regulations and policies which have been adopted, which would require all child care workers employed at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind to have an associate's degree. The Legislature finds that the approximately thirty-five child care workers currently employed at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia have provided compassionate care, attention and love for the children enrolled at the school and to their families, as well. The Legislature finds that these employees have already demonstrated and established, by and through their experience and their devoted service, that they possess the requisite skills, knowledge and abilities to do their jobs. Because of the ample evidence of the qualifications, skills and abilities of the current child care workers employed at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia the Legislature finds that any regulation, policy or rule of the school or of the State Board of Education requiring child care workers, or workers hired to perform substantially similar work regardless of job classification, to have associate's degrees should exempt the child care workers already employed and doing their jobs at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia, effectively "grandfathering" the current employees from the application of any such regulation, rule or policy.

            (b) Exemption Established – Notwithstanding any rule, regulation or policy of the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind or of the West Virginia State Board of Education to the contrary, no child care worker at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia, who was employed in that position on or before June l, 2015, may be required to have or hold an associate's degree as a condition of retaining employment as a child care worker or qualifying for employment in a position of residential care specialist or other job classification having substantially the same duties and responsibilities.

 


            NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish a "grandfathering" exemption from any regulation, rule or policy requiring an associate's degree for the persons who, through their work and service as child care workers at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney West Virginia, have already demonstrated that they possess the requisite skills and abilities to care for the residents for whom they are responsible.

 


 

            §18-17-10 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.

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