Introduced Version
House Bill 2265 History
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Committee Substitute
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2265
(By Delegates Fleischauer, L. Phillips, D. Campbell,
Poore, Marshall and Barill)
[Introduced February 13, 2013; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9F-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §18-28-2 of said
code, all relating to the School Access Safety Act; requiring
public, private, parochial and church schools to include
sports injury protocols in their crisis response plans; and
requiring the State Board of Education to promulgate a
legislative rule incorporating protocols for sports injuries
that occur on school property; setting forth what the
protocols must include; and establishing a date by which
schools must file the plans to their respective county boards
of education.
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; and that §18-28-2 of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9F. SCHOOL ACCESS SAFETY ACT.
§18-9F-1. Legislative findings and intent; protocols for sports
_injuries; rule-making.
(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.
(c) The state board shall promulgate a legislative rule, and
if necessary may promulgate an emergency rule, in accordance with
the provisions of article three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code, incorporating protocols for sports injuries that occur on
school property into the uniform template provided in this section.
Protocols on sports injuries shall be developed both for school-
sponsored sports events and community sports events. The sports
injury protocols shall include directives for personnel or
equipment which should be available, if needed, on sports fields or
in school buildings for both girls and boys teams as well as
training needed for school or volunteer personnel. Each school
shall include sports injury protocols in its crisis response plan
filed with that school's county board no later than August 1, 2014, and in each crisis response plan.
ARTICLE 28. PRIVATE, PAROCHIAL OR CHURCH SCHOOLS, OR SCHOOLS OF A
RELIGIOUS ORDER.
§18-28-2. Attendance; health and safety regulations; sports
injuries.
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. Each school's crisis response plan shall
include protocols for sports injuries consistent with section nine,
article nine of this chapter.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require public, private,
parochial and church schools to include sports injury protocols in
their crisis response plans. The bill requires the State Board of
Education to promulgate a legislative rule incorporating protocols
for sports injuries that occur on school property. The bill sets
forth what the protocols must include. The bill also establishes
a date by which schools must file the plans to their respective
county boards of education.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.