ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 592
(Senators Palumbo, Stollings, Plymale, Unger, Browning, Minard, Foster,
Wells, Fanning, Jenkins, Tucker and Kessler (Acting President), original
sponsors)
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[Passed March 11, 2011; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §18-9F-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; to amend said code by adding thereto a new
section, designated §18-9F-9; and to amend and reenact §18-28-
2 of said code, all relating to requiring crisis response
plans for all schools; updating legislative findings and
intent; requiring the state board in conjunction with the
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
promulgate legislative rule by certain date for school
specific crisis response plan establishment, minimum content,
safeguards, updating, filing, informing and training school
personnel, release of information to public; procedures for
non public schools; authorizing emergency rule; considerations
in developing rule; minimum contents of rule; requiring plan filing with county boards and certain disposition including
public inspection of redacted copies and notice to parents;
and requiring private, parochial and religious schools to
establish, file and update school specific crisis response
plan that complies with certain rule requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9F-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated §18-9F-9; and that §18-28-2 of
said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9F. SCHOOL ACCESS SAFETY AND CRISIS RESPONSE ACT.
§18-9F-1. Legislative findings and intent.
(a) The Legislature finds that:
(1) Establishing and maintaining safe and secure schools is
critical to fostering a healthy learning environment and maximizing
student achievement;
(2) All school facilities in the state should be designed,
constructed, furnished and maintained in a manner that enhances a
healthy learning environment and provides necessary safeguards for
the health, safety and security of persons who enter and use the
facilities;
(3) Adequate safeguards for the ingress to and egress from
school facilities of pupils, school employees, parents, visitors
and emergency personnel are critical to the overall safety of the
public schools in this state;
(4) Safety upgrades to the means of ingress to and egress from school facilities for pupils, school employees, parents, visitors
and emergency personnel must be part of a comprehensive analysis of
overall school safety issues that takes into consideration the
input of local law-enforcement agencies, local emergency services
agencies, community leaders, parents, pupils, teachers,
administrators and other school employees interested in the
prevention of school crime and violence;
(5) In order to help ensure safety in all schools within the
state and to be prepared to adequately respond to potential crises,
including any traumatic event or emergency condition that creates
distress, hardship, fear or grief, each school must have an up-to-
date comprehensive crisis response plan as detailed in section nine
of this article.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to empower the School
Building Authority to facilitate and provide state funds for the
design, construction, renovation, repair and upgrading of
facilities so as to enhance school access safety and provide secure
ingress to and egress from school facilities to pupils, school
employees, parents, visitors and emergency personnel.
§18-9F-9. Crisis Response Plan.
(a) The state board in conjunction with the Division of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management shall promulgate by
December 31, 2011, a legislative rule in accordance with article
three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, and if necessary may
promulgate an emergency rule in accordance with said article, for
the establishment of an up-to-date, school specific crisis response plan at every school in the state. In developing the rule, the
state board shall consider plans currently being developed as part
of the safe schools initiative currently underway by the School
Building Authority and the Division of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management. In addition, those portions of a school's
access safety plan created pursuant to section three of this
article may be used as a portion of the school's school specific
crisis response plan if there are any overlapping requirements.
The rule shall provide for at least the following:
(1) A model school crisis response plan for use by each school
in the state, including a uniform template which shall be used by
each school to file the plan, including at least the following
information, in a secure electronic system identified by the
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management:
(A) The school employee in charge during a crisis and a
designated substitute;
(B) A communication plan to be used during a crisis;
(C) Protocols for responding to immediate physical harm of
students, faculty or staff and to traumatic events, including the
period after the events have concluded;
(D) Disaster and emergency procedures to respond to
earthquakes, fire, flood, other natural disasters, explosions or
other events or conditions in which death or serious injury is
likely;
(E) Crisis procedures for safe entrance to and exit from the
school by students, parents, and employees, including an evacuation and lock down plan; and
(F) Policies and procedures for enforcing school discipline
and maintaining a safe and orderly environment during the crisis.
(2) A requirement that each school's school specific crisis
response plan shall be in place and filed with that school's county
board, and included in a secure electronic system identified by the
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, no later
than August 1, 2013, or soon after completion by the school,
whichever occurs first;
(3) The necessary safeguards to protect information contained
in each school specific crisis response plan that may be considered
protected critical infrastructure information, law enforcement
sensitive information or for official use only. These safeguards
must have the approval the Division of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management. County boards shall provide the same
necessary safeguards for the information in the plan;
(4) The annual review and necessary update of the model plan
and uniform template by state board in conjunction with the
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management by December
31 of each year after 2011;
(5) The development by each school of a school specific crisis
response plan by using the state board's model plan as an example
and with consultation from local social services agencies, local
first response agencies including police, fire, emergency medical
services (EMS), emergency management and any other local entities
that the school's crisis response planning team determines should be consulted;
(6) Procedures for the annual review and update if necessary
by each school of its school specific crisis response planning
plan. Each school shall file either an updated crisis response
plan or a memorandum stating that no update to the crisis response
plan was necessary with its county board and the Division of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management no later than August 1
of each year after 2013.
(7) Procedures for each school within the state to form a
crisis response planning team, which team may consist of the
school's Local School Improvement Council or a separate team
consisting of the principal, two teachers, one service person and
two parents of children attending the school. In addition the
school may include on the team one member of the county board, a
school counselor, a member from local law-enforcement authorities,
the local county emergency services director and one student in
grade ten or higher if the school has those grades;
(8) Procedures for informing and training school personnel on
any actions required of them to effectuate the school's school
specific crisis response plan;
(9) A model template for redacted copies of the school crisis
response plan for the public inspection and for the release and
notice to parents of information related to the plan; and
(10) Procedures for non public schools to establish, file and
update school crisis response plans consistent with subdivision (1)
subsection (a) of this section.
(b) The county board shall keep the current crisis response
plan of each school in the county on file and, unless otherwise
provided for, provide a copy of each school's crisis response plan
to each local emergency response agency that has a role in the
plan. Local emergency response agencies that maintain a copy of
the plan shall provide the necessary safeguards for the information
in the plan established pursuant to the state board rule
promulgated pursuant to subsection (a) of this section. Upon
request, a redacted copy of a school crisis response plan shall be
made available for inspection by the public with any information
removed that is necessary for compliance with the necessary
safeguards. Starting with the 2012-2013 school year, each school
shall annually send notice home to all parents and guardians of
students at the school alerting the parents and guardians to the
existence of the crisis response plan and the ability to review a
redacted copy at the offices of the county board.
ARTICLE 28. PRIVATE, PAROCHIAL OR CHURCH SCHOOLS OR SCHOOLS OF A
RELIGIOUS ORDER.
§18-28-2. Attendance; health and safety regulations.
The following is applicable to private, parochial or church
schools or schools of a religious order:
(a) Each school shall observe a minimum instructional term of
one hundred eighty days with an average of five hours of
instruction per day;
(b) Each school shall make and maintain annual attendance and disease immunization records for each pupil enrolled and regularly
attending classes. The attendance records shall be made available
to the parents or legal guardians;
(c) Upon the request of the county superintendent, a school
(or a parents organization composed of the parents or guardians of
children enrolled in the school) shall furnish to the county board
a list of the names and addresses of all children enrolled in the
school between the ages of seven and sixteen years;
(d) Attendance by a child at any school which complies with
this article satisfies the requirements of compulsory school
attendance;
(e) Each school is subject to reasonable fire, health and
safety inspections by state, county and municipal authorities as
required by law, and is required to comply with the West Virginia
school bus safety regulations; and
(f) Each school shall establish, file and update a school
specific crisis response plan which complies with the requirements
established for it by the state board and the Division of Homeland
Security and Emergency Management pursuant to section nine, article
nine-f of this chapter.