CHARLESTON — A long-awaited student discipline bill in the West Virginia Senate focused on elementary school grades passed easily Monday, but it may not be so easy in the House of Delegates, where a similar bill has seen no movement in the Senate.
The Senate approved Senate Bill 614, regarding initial behavior intervention and safety, on Monday morning by a vote of 32-1, sending the bill to the House. Only House Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, voted no.
SB 614 would require students in kindergarten through sixth grade to be placed in the district's behavioral intervention program if their classroom behavior is violent, threatening or intimidating toward staff and other students and disrupts the learning environment. The intervention program can be either through the county school system or through a neighboring system.
Students will be placed in behavioral intervention programs at the discretion of the teacher, principal, and vice principal. If there is a disagreement between a teacher and administrators, the teacher can file a complaint with the district superintendent. The bill would also not repeal provisions of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
For districts that do not have behavioral intervention programs, students will be removed from the classroom after incidents and suspended from school for the next one to three days while alternative educational accommodations are made, where the student receives instruction through alternative learning.
Parents will be asked to pick up the student either immediately or by the end of the school day. The student will be prohibited from returning home by school bus. Any student not picked up by a parent or guardian by the end of the school day will be notified to law enforcement.
The student will not be able to return to school until the risk has been assessed by a school psychologist. Upon completion, the student returns to school for a probationary period of between five and ten days. In the event of another incident, the student will be placed in an alternative educational setting for the remainder of the semester or school year.
“We've always focused on letting teachers know we're listening,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady, R-Mason, the bill's lead sponsor. “This is one of those bills that does that.”
Grady, an elementary school teacher in her home district, said the bill came about after listening to the concerns of fellow teachers who believe they do not have the support of their principals in maintaining safe learning environments for the majority of students.
“I have compassion for every child…including those who struggle with these behaviors,” Grady said. “But we focus a lot of our resources and a lot of things on that student who has these types of behaviors, and we ignore the other 19 students in the classroom. We ignore them. What about their safe place? Students come to school and this is the only safe place.”
Monday's vote on SB 614 had bipartisan support, but minority Senate Democrats questioned whether the bill's provisions were too broad and could be used against students when inappropriate, and whether districts with behavioral intervention programs would work with districts that does not have such programs, whether counties that have behavioral intervention programs would work with counties that do not have such programs, whether a law enforcement intervention requirement would increase pressure on the child protection system and whether the bill constitutes a mandate Not funded for counties.
“I'm getting correspondence about this in both directions.” said Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion. “Some teachers tell me this is a bad idea, some teachers tell me we have to do something, but they don't know what that is… I will vote for the bill, but I hope we can find more remedies.”
“We have to take the first step here…but this is an unfunded mandate and to make it work, there needs to be funding to match that,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Wolfel, D-Cabell. “I don't think we're throwing all the bad apples into the same barrel as has repeatedly been done in this case. We're not doing that. I think it's a good bill and a good start.”
The House of Delegates has already passed the elementary school discipline bill. House Bill 4776, passed at the end of January, expands House Bill 2890 that the Legislature passed last year that allows teachers in grades six through 12 to exclude students from the classroom who are disruptive or disruptive. The educational process or the teacher disrupts their classroom for the rest of the school day.
HB 4776 would allow teachers to remove students from the classroom in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade but only under limited circumstances. Teachers must show through documentation that a student's behavior repeatedly interferes with their ability to teach and the ability of other students to learn. It gives the teacher the authority to determine whether a student has demonstrated consistent disruptive behavior or committed physical acts involving harm and violence.
A student removed from an elementary school classroom under HB 4776 will not be returned to the classroom without teacher approval, unless the committee determines that returning the student to that classroom is the best option. However, if a student is removed from the classroom due to violent behavior, he or she cannot be returned to the classroom without the teacher's approval.
The bill also requires a meeting between the parent or guardian and the school discipline team within three days of the child being removed from the classroom. The discipline team will also determine whether the student's actions were in self-defense, the intent of the student's actions, and whether the student has a disability that affects his or her ability to understand his or her actions. Exceptions to the proposed law may be made based on a student's prior diagnosis or individual learning plan.
Grady said after HB 4776 passed that she did not support this bill as written. House Education Committee Chairman Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, who has not yet seen the bill, declined to comment on SB 416.
Both bills come as teachers union representatives call for additional assistance for teachers in dealing with increasing incidents of verbal and sometimes violent behavior from students in classrooms. AFT-WV President Fred Albert has raised educators' concerns about student violence at recent State Board of Education meetings. Albert supports the bill as a first step, but believes funding needs have increased for counselors and behavioral specialists: something the bill does not include.
“We need help for our teachers and our students. This message is clear,” Albert said. “We are seeing behaviors that cannot be tolerated anywhere else. I think this bill attempts to address those issues, but will we have the resources we need? Are we really going to get help from this bill? “I don’t think we need to just suspend students.”
The state Department of Education has spent the past few months working with county school systems to reverse significant disparities in student discipline that disproportionately target Black students, other minorities, students from low-income families and also students in the state's foster care system.
The Rev. Matthew Watts is a pastor on Charleston's predominantly black West Side and the leader of the Tuesday Morning Group, an organization focused on economic and social justice issues. In a letter to the Department of Education dated February 3, Watts called for amending SB 614 to have its provisions implemented as a pilot project in at least two counties before being rolled out statewide.
In his letter, Watts raised a number of concerns about SB 614, including that it would increase the number of suspensions, exacerbate the state's truancy problems and pit teachers and administrators against each other.
“I understand that the intent of the bill is to minimize disruption to classrooms, which is important,” Watts said. “However, there may be better, less radical ways to achieve this goal. It is my opinion that… legislators need to present to them data demonstrating the negative impact that exclusionary discipline has on the academic performance of elementary students and the long-term negative impact that exclusionary discipline has on children.” In their future.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at Sadams@newsandsentinel.com.
