COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4063
(By Delegates Damron, Hubbard, Beach,
Underwood, Jenkins, Johnson and Heck)
(Originating in the Committee on Education)
[March 5, 1998]
A BILL to amend article two, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirty- two; to amend and reenact section thirteen, article five of
said chapter; and to further amend said article by adding
thereto a new section, designated section forty-four, all
relating to expanding the authority of county boards of
education to implement and maintain a mandatory drug testing
program of certain school employees; establishing the drug
testing program; requiring positive drug test results to be
reported by county boards of education to the state board of
education.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
thirty-two; that section thirteen, article five of said chapter
be amended and reenacted; and that said article be further
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section forty-four, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-32. Authority to require county boards to conduct drug
testing of service personnel in safety sensitive
jobs; requirement to maintain two year registry of
employees testing positively for controlled
substances.
The state board is authorized and empowered to require the
county boards to conduct mandatory drug testing, in compliance
with federal regulations, of service personnel engaged in a
safety sensitive job, as that term is defined by section forty- four, article five of this chapter. The board shall propose
legislative rules, in accordance with the provisions of article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, designed to provide a
framework for random drug testing to be conducted by county
boards of education, which shall provide for the testing to be by
urine sample. The board shall propose such other and additional
rules necessary for the implementation of the mandatory drug
testing program as required by this section and by section forty- four, article five of this chapter.
The state board shall initiate and maintain a registry of
names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers of
school service personnel in safety sensitive jobs who have been
tested positively for controlled substances:
Provided, That no
such school employee's name may be taken or maintained who
provides proof of a lawful medical prescription for any
controlled substance detected by any test provided for hereunder. Upon being provided with the name, address, social security
number, date of birth and any other necessary identifying
information by a county board relative to an applicant for
employment as a service personnel employee in a safety sensitive
job, the state board shall check the name and accompanying
information in order to ascertain if the applicant has, within
two years, been terminated from employment on the basis of being
positively tested for the presence of controlled substances for
which the applicant had no lawful medical prescription. In the
event any such applicant within two years was terminated pursuant
to the mandatory drug testing program, the state board shall
immediately advise the county board of this fact, and the
applicant may not be hired by the county board.
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-13. Authority of boards generally.
The boards, subject to the provisions of this chapter and the
rules of the state board, have authority:
(1) To control and manage all of the schools and school
interests for all school activities and upon all school property,
whether owned or leased by the county, including the authority to
require that records be kept of all receipts and disbursements of
all funds collected or received by any principal, teacher,
student or other person in connection with the schools and school
interests, any programs, activities or other endeavors of any
nature operated or carried on by or in the name of the school, or
any organization or body directly connected with the school, to
audit the records and to conserve the funds, which shall be considered quasi-public moneys, including securing surety bonds
by expenditure of board moneys;
(2) To establish schools, from preschool through high school,
inclusive of vocational schools; and to establish schools and
programs, or both, for post high school instruction, subject to
approval of the state board of education;
(3) To close any school which is unnecessary and to assign the
pupils of the school to other schools:
Provided, That the
closing shall be officially acted upon and teachers and service
personnel involved notified on or before the first Monday in
April, in the same manner as provided in section four of this
article, except in an emergency, subject to the approval of the
state superintendent, or under subdivision (5) of this section;
(4) To consolidate schools;
(5) To close any elementary school whose average daily
attendance falls below twenty pupils for two months in succession
and send the pupils to other schools in the district or to
schools in adjoining districts. If the teachers in the closed
school are not transferred or reassigned to other schools, they
shall receive one month's salary;
(6) (a) To provide at public expense adequate means of
transportation, including transportation across county lines, for
all children of school age who live more than two miles distance
from school by the nearest available road; to provide at public
expense and according to such rules as the board may establish,
adequate means of transportation for school children
participating in board-approved curricular and extracurricular activities; and to provide in addition thereto at public expense,
by rules and within the available revenues, transportation for
those within two miles distance; to provide in addition thereto,
at no cost to the board and according to rules established by the
board, transportation for participants in projects operated,
financed, sponsored or approved by the commission on aging:
Provided, That all costs and expenses incident in any way to
transportation for projects connected with the commission on
aging shall be borne by the commission, or the local or county
chapter of the commission:
Provided, however, That in all cases
the school buses owned by the board of education shall be driven
or operated only by drivers regularly employed by the board of
education:
Provided further, That the county board may provide,
under rules established by the state board, for the certification
of professional employees as drivers of board-owned vehicles with
a seating capacity of less than ten passengers used for the
transportation of pupils for school-sponsored activities other
than transporting students between school and home:
And provided
further, That the use of the vehicles shall be limited to one
for each school-sponsored activity:
And provided further, That
buses shall be used for extracurricular activities as provided in
this section only when the insurance provided for by this section
is in effect;
(b) To enter into agreements with one another to provide, on
a cooperative basis, adequate means of transportation across
county lines for children of school age subject to the conditions
and restrictions of subdivisions (6) and (8) of this section;
(7) (a) To lease school buses operated only by drivers
regularly employed by the board to public and private nonprofit
organizations or private corporations to transport school-age
children to and from camps or educational activities in
accordance with rules established by the board. All costs and
expenses incurred by or incidental to the transportation of the
children shall be borne by the lessee;
(b) To contract with any college or university or officially
recognized campus organizations to provide transportation for
college or university students, faculty or staff to and from the
college or university:
Provided, That only college and
university students, faculty and staff are being transported.
The contract shall include consideration and compensation for bus
operators, repairs and other costs of service, insurance and any
rules concerning student behavior;
(8) To provide at public expense for insurance against the
negligence of the drivers of school buses, trucks or other
vehicles operated by the board; and if the transportation of
pupils is contracted, then the contract for the transportation
shall provide that the contractor shall carry insurance against
negligence in an amount specified by the board;
(9) To provide solely from county funds for all regular
full-time employees of the board all or any part of the cost of
a group plan or plans of insurance coverage not provided or
available under the West Virginia public employees insurance act;
(10) To employ teacher aides, to provide in-service training
for teacher aides, the training to be in accordance with rules of the state board and, in the case of service personnel assuming
duties as teacher aides in exceptional children programs, to
provide a four-clock-hour program of training prior to the
assignment which shall, in accordance with rules of the state
board, consist of training in areas specifically related to the
education of exceptional children;
(11) To establish and conduct a self-supporting dormitory for
the accommodation of the pupils attending a high school or
participating in a post high school program and of persons
employed to teach in the high school or post high school program;
(12) To employ legal counsel;
(13) To provide appropriate uniforms for school service
personnel;
(14) To provide at public expense and under rules as
established by any county board of education for the payment of
traveling expenses incurred by any person invited to appear to be
interviewed concerning possible employment by the county board of
education;
(15) To allow or disallow their designated employees to use
publicly provided carriage to travel from their residences to
their workplace and return:
Provided, That the usage is subject
to the supervision of the board and is directly connected with
and required by the nature and in the performance of the
employee's duties and responsibilities;
(16) To provide, at public expense, adequate public liability
insurance, including professional liability insurance for board
employees;
(17) To enter into agreements with one another to provide, on
a cooperative basis, improvements to the instructional needs of
each county. The cooperative agreements may be used to employ
specialists in a field of academic study or support functions or
services, for the academic study. The agreements are subject to
approval by the state board of education;
(18) To implement and maintain the mandatory drug testing
program for service personnel in safety sensitive jobs, as
defined in section forty-four of this article, within the school
system managed by a board;
(18) (19) To provide information about vocational or higher
education opportunities to students with handicapping conditions.
The board shall provide in writing to the students and their
parents or guardians information relating to programs of
vocational education and to programs available at state funded
institutions of higher education. The information may include
sources of available funding, including grants, mentor ships and
loans for students who wish to attend classes at institutions of
higher education;
and
(19) (20) To enter into agreements with one another, with the
approval of the state board, for the transfer and receipt of any
and all funds determined to be fair when students are permitted
or required to attend school in a county other than the county of
their residence;
and
(20) (21) To enter into job-sharing arrangements, as defined
in section one, article one, chapter eighteen-a of this code,
with its professional employees:
Provided, That a job sharing arrangement shall meet all the requirements relating to posting,
qualifications and seniority, as provided for in article four,
chapter eighteen-a of this code:
Provided, however, That,
notwithstanding any provisions of this code to the contrary, a
county board which enters into a job-sharing arrangement wherein
two or more professional employees voluntarily share an
authorized full-time position shall provide the mutually agreed
upon employee coverage but
shall may not offer insurance coverage
to more than one of the job-sharing employees, including any
group plan or group plans available under the state public
employees insurance act:
Provided further, That all employees
involved in the job-sharing agreement meet the requirements of
subdivision
four (4), section two, article sixteen, chapter five
of this code.
"Quasi-public funds" as used in this section means any money
received by any principal, teacher, student or other person for
the benefit of the school system as a result of curricular or
noncurricular activities.
The board of each county shall expend under rules it
establishes for each child an amount not to exceed the proportion
of all school funds of the district that each child would be
entitled to receive if all the funds were distributed equally
among all the children of school age in the district upon a per
capita basis.
§18-5-44. Program for mandatory drug testing of service
personnel in safety sensitive jobs.
Beginning the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety eight, all school service personnel in safety sensitive
jobs shall be tested for the presence of controlled substances,
as defined by federal law. The tests shall be conducted in
compliance with federal regulations and shall be conducted by
obtaining a sample of the employee's urine. For the purpose of
this section, "safety sensitive job" means any position that
requires a commercial drivers' license, as defined in article
one, chapter seventeen-e of this code, or where otherwise
mandated by federal law.
Upon receiving a conclusive positive test result, the county
board shall immediately report to the state board by certified
mail the employee's name, address, social security number, date
of birth and any other necessary identifying information, as well
as the particular aspects of the positive test result, and the
date the employee was terminated from employment:
Provided, That
no person may be terminated from employment who submits
sufficient proof that he or she possesses a lawful medical
prescription for any controlled substance for which he or she
tests positively.
No county board may hire any person to a service personnel
position in a safety sensitive job without first providing the
name, address and social security number of the person applying
for the job to the state board in order to enable the state board
to determine if the person tested positively for controlled
substances pursuant to the requirements of this section within
two years from the application of employment. Neither may a
county board hire any person to a service personnel position in a safety sensitive job without first testing the person for
controlled substances, as provided for in this section.
NOTE: This bill requires the names of all drug abuse
offenders employed by county boards of education to be reported
to the state board of education. The appropriate county board of
education, upon hiring service personnel in safety sensitive
positions, is to send those names to the state board to check
whether they have tested positively for illegal drug use.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
§18-2-32 and §18-5-44 are new; therefore, strike-throughs
and underscoring have been omitted.
Email
Webmaster | © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **
