WEST virginia legislature

2022 regular session

Committee Substitute

for

House Bill 4420

By Delegates Toney, Rohrbach, Rowan, Paynter, and Dean

[Introduced January 27, 2022; referred
to the Committee on Education]

A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-2-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to eligibility requirements of school bus operators diagnosed with diabetes mellitus requiring insulin; providing that the eligibility requirements are also applicable to a school bus operator candidate; clarifying that the operator must also be issued a school bus endorsement for his or her commercial driver’s  license; and specifying that the school bus operator must remain in compliance with the eligibility stipulations and grounds as per applicable state and federal rules.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 2. SCHOOL PERSONNEL.

§18A-2-4. Commercial driver’s license for school personnel; intrastate waiver for bus operators diagnosed with diabetes mellitus requiring insulin; reimbursement of electrician’s and commercial driver’s license when required, and educational sign language interpreter certification.

(a) If a commercial driver’s license is required as a condition of employment for any school employee or qualified applicant who becomes an employee by a county board the cost is paid in full by the county board.

A county board may not require any employee or applicant who becomes an employee of the board to pay the cost of acquiring a commercial driver’s license as a condition of employment.

(b) The Division of Motor Vehicles shall accept the West Virginia Department of Education physical and psychomotor test result forms in lieu of the Division of Motor Vehicles vision report form.

(c) A school bus operator who is currently employed by a county board or a school bus operator candidate who is otherwise subject to state board rules governing school bus operators and who is diagnosed with diabetes mellitus requiring insulin is not ineligible for employment as a school bus operator because of the diagnosis if the operator is issued a passenger and school bus endorsement for his or her commercial driver driver’s license through the intrastate waiver program pertaining to diabetes of the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles, subject to the following:

(1) A copy of the information required to be submitted to the Division of Motor Vehicles for waiver application and proof of passenger and school bus endorsement under the waiver program is submitted to his or her employer; and

(2) The operator remains in compliance with the stipulations of and grounds for eligibility per Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Division of Motor Vehicles, and state board rules for the intrastate waiver.

(d) If a county board requires of any employee who is employed as an electrician any license renewal when the employee is exempt from renewing the license pursuant to §29-3B-3 of this code, the cost of the license renewal is paid in full by the county board.

(e) The cost of certification renewal and satisfying the requirements of the West Virginia Registry of Interpreters is paid in full by the employer for any service person who is:

(1) Employed as an educational sign language interpreter I or II and is required to complete any testing, training or continuing education in order to renew or maintain certification at that level;

(2) Employed as an educational sign language interpreter I and is required to complete any testing, training or continuing education to advance to an educational sign language interpreter II; or

(3) Employed as a sign support specialist and is required to complete any testing, training or continuing education in order to advance to an educational sign language interpreter I or II.

(f) For any service person required to hold certification as a condition of employment, any time devoted to acquiring or maintaining the certification, including instructional time and training, constitutes hours of continuing education for purposes of meeting the annual continuing education requirements in state board policy.

(g) Compliance with or failure to comply by a health care provider licensed and authorized pursuant to chapter thirty of this code, with the reporting requirements of the Division of Motor Vehicles regarding the provisions of subsection (c) of this section does not constitute negligence, nor may compliance or noncompliance with the requirements of this section be admissible as evidence of negligence in any civil or criminal action.