Governement Story Archives - Page 2 of 6 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New Fentanyl Education Discussed By Education Committee

Whether or not to teach middle schoolers about fentanyl and overdose-reversing medicine sparked discussion in the House Education Committee, while Senate Education modified a House bill on special education.

Titled Laken’s Law, House Bill 5540 would mandate fentanyl prevention and awareness education, as well as use of naloxone, in grades six through 12.

The bill sparked more than a half hour of discussion and debate in the House Education Committee Wednesday, with many delegates expressing concern about whether it was appropriate to teach sixth graders how to administer opioid-reversing medication.

State Superintendent Michele Blatt told the committee that drug prevention has been a focus of health education in schools for years and reflects the lived reality of many students in the state, even in middle school.

“I think middle school is where a lot of those problems begin,” she said. “One of the surveys that we do, the safe and drug free school survey, students start talking about as early as sixth and seventh grade being exposed to it or having the opportunity to use it. So I don’t think it’s too early to share the messaging of the dangers and the harms of it.”

Fentanyl has been a leading cause of overdose deaths in recent years. But data released last June by the Office of Drug Control Policy revealed a decline in opioid overdose rates, marking a positive turn in the fight against the ongoing drug epidemic. Health officials attribute the positive trend to a combination of factors, including expanded availability of naloxone. Blatt compared training for the use of naloxone products, such as Narcan, to first aid and CPR.

“Sadly, the world we live in now, it may be a matter of the student learns to use it, because they’re going to have to use it on mom or dad at home when they can’t wake up their parents or something,” she said.

The bill was amended to include heroin and other opioids in the new mandated education, and now goes to the House for its consideration.

House Education also discussed:

HB 5405, Providing additional professional development and support to West Virginia educators through teacher and leader induction and professional growth.
HB 5553, To provide and change graduation requirements and change duties relating to academic content standards.
HB 5607, Relating to public charter school’s application for funding
HB 5650, Allow suspended school personnel to enter school property functions open to the public.
SB 507, Relating to repeal of WV EDGE.

In the Senate

The Senate Education Committee focused on one Senate bill and two House bills Thursday morning.

House Bill 4860, which originally freed general education teachers from documenting special education accommodations, was hotly debated when it passed through the House Education Committee Jan. 22. Bill sponsor Del. Elliot Pritt, R-Fayette, a middle school teacher, called existing documentation requirements onerous, while critics of the bill raised concern that the bill would open the door for shirking of legal responsibilities to special education students.

Thursday morning, the Senate Education Committee changed the bill to re-introduce some documentation requirements for all teachers. Pritt was on hand to approve of the changes.

“In Fayette County, many other counties right now, we’re required to complete just an onerous amount of daily paperwork to prove that we’re already doing what we’re required to do by law in the first place,” he said. “I spoke with Chairwoman Grady and have agreed with the changes he’s proposed to the bill. It still equals a desired outcome of less onerous paperwork and but still meets, I guess, addresses the concerns that some people had about there being no daily documentation.”

The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

The Senate Education Committee also discussed:

SB 727 – Revising process for county boards of education to hire support staff
HB 4768 – Relating to increasing the number of out- of-state medical students receiving in-state tuition rates who agree to practice for a specific time within West Virginia.

Despite Legislative Action Last Year, Discipline Continues To Be Focus Of Session

Discipline has always been a part of a school education. But in recent years, concerns over student and teacher safety have elevated discipline to be the school issue of the day. The West Virginia Legislature has attempted to address the matter, and has indicated it will continue to do so this year.

This story originally appeared as a video package on the Jan. 24, 2024 episode of The Legislature Today.

Discipline has always been a part of a school education. But in recent years, concerns over student and teacher safety have elevated discipline to be the school issue of the day. The West Virginia Legislature has attempted to address the matter and has indicated it will continue to do so this year.

Last year, state education groups told legislators that school discipline was at a near crisis level. Since then, the West Virginia Department of Education has analyzed discipline data that shows it is a multifaceted, complex issue.

Adam Henkins, director of Safe Schools, Athletics and Title IX for Monongalia County Schools, said things have changed a lot for students in recent years, including the pervasiveness of vaping and cellphones. But another big factor is that the environment outside of the classroom, at home and beyond, has changed.

“Maybe 15 years ago, a student misbehaved and a parent was called home or a student was suspended from school for a day,” Henkins said. “The outside environment, the home environment would take care of that behavior, we’d come back to school and we’d see a different child. That’s not the case anymore.”

He said suspension could now mean giving a student exactly what they want because they don’t want to be in school in the first place. In more serious cases, it could mean sending a student away from caring educators and back to an unsafe home environment. Henkins believes that keeping a student in school provides the opportunity not only to, in many cases, meet their basic needs, but also teach correct behavior.

“Behavior is nothing different than teaching math or English,” he said. “They need to know what they don’t know, and it’s our job to teach them. If you don’t know addition or subtraction, we don’t discipline a child, right?”

Behavioral issues were only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger students in particular returned to classrooms without the social conditioning of previous generations.

State education officials are hopeful that identifying these trends is the first step towards correcting them, but what the legislature’s role is in the process remains to be seen.

The legislature attempted to address discipline issues last year with House Bill 2890. It was written to give school teachers and administrators more leeway in school discipline that results from a personality clash between teacher and student. The intent is to allow a teacher to remove a disruptive student to a different environment to protect the integrity of the class for the duration of that class period.

Henkins said he appreciates the flexibility HB 2890 has provided educators, while recognizing that the law could use some clarification in certain areas, such as in cases of special education students.

“It basically gives you an opportunity to sit down with the principal as the teacher, sit down with the parent as the teacher, and express what is going on,” he said. “So now the principal has had a chance to correct the behavior. Now you’re bringing the family in, you’re bringing the teacher in, you’re bringing the principal in to try to correct the behavior.”

Teachers and educational leaders say the law has been implemented inconsistently, and with potentially serious consequences. For example, statute mandates that students be suspended if removed from a classroom three times in one month.

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is the chair of the Senate Education Committee. She is also a third grade teacher and said she has heard from other teachers around the state that HB 2890 is only being implemented intermittently.

“It baffles me, it baffles me that you have a state law and people just decide that they don’t want to do it, or you know, that they don’t have to follow it,” Grady said.

Grady said once the law is passed, it is out of the hands of legislators, and it needs buy-in from everyone in the system. Not only are students being disrupted, she said school discipline is contributing to teachers leaving the profession.

“This is the number one thing that they have brought to me and said, ‘This is our number one issue,’” she said. “This is the problem that we think is facing education today, whether it’s learning, affects the learning of others, or whether it affects any other part of the school. It’s driving teachers away.”

Grady said she has spent the months between sessions listening to educators across the state, from teachers in classrooms to administrators and board of education members. She’s also spoken to parents and even companies involved in alternative education solutions to ensure she’s considering all of the state’s various needs.

As for a specific legislative solution, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, indicated during a legislative lookahead event that alternative education for disruptive students will be a focus for lawmakers this session.

“What we need to do in the classroom is be able to take that disruptive student out, move them to a classroom where there’s cameras, behavior specialists, and allow those teachers to do their jobs without the disruption,” he said.

Grady said whether it be a clarification of HB 2890 or a new approach to alternative education, the legislature needs to take action. But she said part of what makes legislating the issue so difficult is schools are still dealing with the fallout of the state’s addiction crisis, leading to students with a lot of adverse childhood experiences.

“We have to find that balance of meeting the emotional needs of the traumatized child, but also making sure that that child’s trauma does not inflict trauma on somebody else,” Grady said. “And that’s the hardest part is it’s, you know, it’s not as cut and dry as saying, well, one way is great for everybody, because it’s not.”

Documenting Special Education Help, New Human Development Education Requirements

The legislature’s education committees started off the week discussing who is responsible for maintaining records for special education, and teaching about human development.

Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and 504 Plans provide accommodations and services to students with disabilities. Accommodation logs are just one form of documentation that some counties have chosen to use, and not a statewide requirement.

“There’s no reason you have to verify that accommodations were given if you’re the general education teacher, but there’s no specific format that has to be used,” said State Superintendent Michele Blatt. “You could document something in your lesson plans, or you could do a narrative at the end of the week that these three children received online or oral reading of their test or two. There’s not a specific way, but there has to be a way to document that accommodations were provided.”

Blatt was asked to speak to the House Education Committee Monday afternoon as they discussed House Bill 4860. The bill changes code to clarify that a general education teacher cannot be made responsible for accommodation logs, because that responsibility falls upon the special education instructor.

The bill’s lead sponsor Del. David Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette, is also a middle school social studies teacher, and was joined by other educators on the committee to praise the bill. He said teachers were required to review and acknowledge each student’s IEP at the start of the school year.

“I don’t know that everyone quite understands what an unnecessary burden it is to go through a sheet of paper every single day for 50 students and check mark every single accommodation to prove that you’re doing your job that you’re already mandated to do by federal law,” Pritt said. “Not only is it increased, it’s creating more legal liability for teachers than less because what if I miss-mark a student accidentally on a day he wasn’t there, or they weren’t there and I mark ‘I provided accommodations’ and I didn’t and then it comes back?”

Committee Minority Chair Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, spoke in opposition of the bill. He said he trusts teachers to teach, but recognized the reality that a lot of students in the state have IEPs while there is a shortage of special education professionals and those that are in schools cannot visit every classroom every day.

“I think that it’s not practical to have someone who’s not in the room responsible for signing off on something that they can’t really verify whether it happened or not,” he said. “I share the concern to the superintendent that it could very well not be done, because we’re putting it in statute that the person responsible for it is not there.”

Blatt said there are close to 50,000 students in the state with IEPs.

“That would just be students with special education, with an IEP,” she said. “That does not include 504s and that does not count our gifted or exceptionally gifted students that we have.”

Blatt told lawmakers a general education classroom can have as many as 30 percent special education students in it.

The bill was recommended to the House floor.

Human Growth and Development Requirement

Tuesday morning in the Senate Education Committee, Senators discussed Senate Bill 468. The bill creates the Baby Olivia Act and requires the State Board of Education to provide courses on human growth and development related to pregnancy and specifically inside the womb. The bill specifies that a 3-minute video entitled Meet Baby Olivia – A Never Before Seen Look At Human Life In The Womb be shown in classrooms.

Senators watched the video and voted it to the Senate floor.

A previous version of the bill would have allowed the Attorney General to sue for damages and injunctive relief on behalf of any or all residents or citizens of West Virginia against any person or entity that violated the new Baby Olivia Act. That component of the bill was removed from a committee substitute.

Outdoor Education And Improving West Virginia Corrections, This West Virginia Morning

A WVU student looks at the effect of outdoor education on student success, and a look at improvements to the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

On this West Virginia Morning, a West Virginia University student looks at the effect outdoor education is having on student success, as well as the state’s future.

Also, reporter Rande Yohe looks at improvements that West Virginia’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have made ahead of the state legislature’s upcoming 2024 regular session.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Grant Called ‘First Step’ Toward Making Cardinal A Daily Train

Amtrak will use a $500,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to begin the planning process toward making the Cardinal a daily train.

A new federal grant could help restore daily Amtrak service to Huntington, Charleston and the New River Gorge.

Amtrak will use a $500,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to begin the planning process toward making the Cardinal a daily train.

Currently, the train runs three days a week and connects West Virginia to Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York. It stops in Huntington, Charleston, Montgomery, Prince, Thurmond, Hinton and White Sulfur Springs.

The route is among 69 corridors nationwide where Amtrak is looking to begin or expand service.

In the year that ended Sept. 30, the Cardinal posted a 3 percent increase in riders to 82,705. Only one other Amtrak route, the Sunset Limited, operates three days a week, from Los Angeles to New Orleans.

West Virginia has a daily Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited. It stops in Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin called the grant a first step.

“This is a great investment in further connecting West Virginia communities, bringing more visitors to our great state and creating new economic opportunities,” Manchin said.

Amtrak’s expansion plans are part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which became law in 2021.

State Treasurer Clarifies Use Of Hope Scholarship

State Treasurer Riley Moore has clarified the allowable spending for Hope Scholarship funds.

Moore, who is also the chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board, released a letter Wednesday emphasizing students enrolled full-time in public schools are not eligible to participate in the Hope Scholarship program.

That includes public charter schools, and the letter specifies that “the Hope Scholarship Board approaches public charter schools and the services they provide the same as regular public schools operated by county boards of education.”

More than 6,000 West Virginia students’ families signed up for the Hope Scholarship savings account this year, which awards close to $4500 for private and homeschooling expenses.

The confusion stems from Hope Scholarship students who are not enrolled full-time in a school being allowed to use the funds for certain classes or services a public school might provide.

As funding for public schools is based on enrollment numbers, Moore’s letter says the restriction prevents schools from “double-dipping,” or receiving both public funding and Hope funds for these services.