School Discipline Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Student Discipline, Financial Literacy Discussed At State Board Of Education Meeting

For the past several years, educators have identified worsening classroom behavior and discipline as key issues in state school systems.

For the past several years, educators have identified worsening classroom behavior and discipline as key issues in state school systems. A recent Senate bill aimed to address discipline in elementary grades but failed to pass the House of Delegates during the recent regular legislative session.

Jim Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Board Association, told the state Board of Education Tuesday the bill was focused on punishment and does not deal with typical discipline matters.

“Having served as an elementary principal and a school district superintendent, I can attest this punitive approach fails to address the underlying issues and provide these students with the supports they need to succeed,” he said.

Brown said elementary schools are ill-equipped to manage, let alone address, the mental health issues students are dealing with and that schools should “not attack the child, but attack the behavior.”

“Only a small percentage of school districts in our state have an established alternative learning environment for elementary age students,” he said. “We need to acknowledge the reality of mental health challenges faced by our school-aged children, and the varying degrees of crisis they experience. It is imperative that we conduct an honest review of the supports available across our state, from urban communities to the most rural settings. To have that effectively address this pressing issue.”

Brown finished his statement by calling for the establishment of a statewide task force that brings together educators, mental health professionals, community leaders, parents, and policymakers to develop a holistic strategy to tackle the mental health crisis in schools.

His sentiments were echoed by others addressing the board, including West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee, as well as West Virginia Professional Educators Executive Director David Gladkosky. They discussed the possibility the bill could be brought back up in a proposed special session this month or in May.

Financial Literacy

Several West Virginia Board of Education policies were placed on public comment during the April meeting, including Policy 2520.4, relating to West Virginia College and Career Readiness Standards for Social Studies. The proposed changes would separate personal finance, which is currently taught as part of required civics courses, out to its own standalone requirement and course

Board member Debra Sullivan questioned the wisdom of splitting the two subjects. Joey Wiseman, director of West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Student Enrichment, said the intent of the personal finance was always to have it be a separate course, and doing so allows educators and students to better focus on each subject.

“Now those standards look the same as a personal finance [course] they’re teaching in CTE (career and technical education), it’s the same all the way across,” Wiseman said. “It’s a very rigorous set of standards.“

He also pointed out that personal finance will not become a required credit for another two years, giving teachers and schools time to fit the new course into schedules.

WVDE Regional School Safety Meetings

During last month’s board meeting, the West Virginia Department of Education announced a series of school safety conferences across the state this spring. Dates have now been scheduled for the 2024 Regional School Safety meetings. The meetings will bring together county and school administrators as well as school safety personnel to share administrative updates that are important during a crisis event. Topics include updates on how to submit plans and code student data. Dates and locations include:

May 7, Embassy Suites, Charleston
May 10, White Palace at Wheeling Park
May 13, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
May 16, West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (WVSDB)

State Board Of Education Discusses Effects Of Recent Legislation

Education leaders are taking stock of what the state legislature did and didn’t do for schools in the regular session.

Fred Albert, president of American Federation of Teachers-WV, expressed his concern over the passage of House Bill 5105 to the West Virginia Board of Education Wednesday morning. The bill removes private, parochial and virtual schools from state vaccine requirements.

“I’m all for people having freedom and choice, that’s the American way of life, but when someone’s freedom then infringes upon the safety of others, I think we have a real concern,” he said. “Why would we want to go back to the days of measles and mumps and rubella? Chickenpox, polio?”

Albert said he is signing a public letter to Gov. Jim Justice urging him to veto the bill, and asked board members and listeners to contact the governor in opposition as well.

“I have a colleague that told me in Florida in one elementary classroom, they’ve had six cases of measles in one elementary classroom,” he said. “In Ohio, there are outbreaks of measles. Why would we want to go there? I just don’t understand it.”

Albert also expressed regret that Senate Bill 614, which would have allowed elementary teachers to remove disruptive students from their classroom, did not pass and told the board school discipline issues must be addressed.

“It was not a perfect deal. It had things in there that I didn’t like, but I think it was a start,” he said. “We’ve talked about the cry of our educators needing help with discipline in the classroom. So while that bill wasn’t perfect, it maybe was a beginning. But this looks like we educators have just been shut out, they’re not being heard.”

Policy Changes

The WVBE also approved withdrawing Policy 2322 from public comment. The policy was originally amended to clarify language related to the identification of school districts in need of support for student academic achievement and success and the required actions of the districts based on the level of support needed. In addition, the responsibilities of county board members and the requirements for each level of support were clarified.

Two bills passed during the regular session of the state legislature that ended Saturday make changes to the code the policy refers to, and are currently awaiting Gov. Jim Justice’s signature. Senate Bill 172 revises requirements of local school improvement councils, while House Bill 5514 enhances training requirements for county boards of education members. This requires the policy be withdrawn, revised and presented for placement on public comment at a future board meeting, inclusive of legislative amendments.

Meeting Date Change

The next regularly scheduled WVBE meeting was changed. It will be held on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, at 9 a.m.

School Discipline Bill Stumbles In House Education Committee

School discipline was identified as a key issue coming into this year’s legislative session. But with the session’s end just days away, a key school discipline bill is in question after a contentious committee meeting Monday afternoon.

Senate Bill 614 aims to expand teachers’ ability to remove disruptive students to the elementary level from grades kindergarten through six. But the bill also has further requirements including suspension of the unruly student and placement in alternative education.

Lindsey McIntosh, general counsel for Kanawha County Schools, brought up several concerns when the Senate Education Committee discussed the bill in February. She was on hand again Monday afternoon in the House Education Committee, and told lawmakers that the bill will create more work for schools and school districts. According to McIntosh, the bill requires a student that has been removed to undergo a risk assessment, a step above what Kanawha County Schools already does.

“What we typically do, unless we’re talking about an expulsion, is we do a Threat Report, which is based on the Virginia model of threat reports,” she said. “It is a scientifically proven model that we evaluate whether or not that threat is transient, meaning it was just language used or if it was something that was substantive, meaning they have an intent to actually do what they stated that they were going to do. Once that threat report comes back as substantive, then we do the risk assessment.”

McIntosh said the county does far more threat reports than risk assessments.

She further warned legislators that as written, the bill’s required assessment could spell federal legal trouble for schools. McIntosh said the requirement triggers special education protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA. Those federal protections are incongruous with the bill’s requirement to remove students from their classroom.

“It’s going to create an ambiguity that is going to lead to litigation, there is no way above that or beyond that,” McIntosh said. “If we have teachers that are asking for these students to be removed, and the law says technically they are protected students under the IDEA, which all of these kids would be because they’re all now triggering ChildFind under this language, then we as a school system have to figure out how to litigate – are we under the IDEA? Or are we complying with the law?”

SB 614’s lead sponsor and Senate Education Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, was on hand to defend the bill. She said the bill’s requirements raise the standard for all counties.

“The whole purpose is to remove that child immediately, one to three days, and there have been school systems who say we can’t do a risk assessment, or we can’t do analysis in three days,” Grady said. “Well, you can, you’re just not doing it right now because there’s nobody forcing your hand to get it done right away. And this is kind of what we want to do is make sure we get that done quickly, rather than them dragging their feet for two weeks at a time and saying we don’t have that ready.”

Grady, a teacher, has consistently said that discipline is the number one issue for teachers, driving them away from the profession and robbing other students of their right to learn. She said SB 614 isn’t perfect, but something needs to be done to help the situation.

“You need more people to help with risk assessments, then so be it. That’s what you do,” Grady said. “You rearrange things. That’s what we do in education, we make do with what we have. And so I think that, that’s the best way we would do it now. And if it seems like there are a lot of referrals and specific counties or specific areas, then we have to revisit that and see what needs to be done.”

Grady said the law can be reassessed moving forward as needed, acknowledging it will not fit every situation.

“We don’t have an answer for everything. I wish we did,” she said. “And I wish that this bill solved every problem we have, it would be so great. I worked so hard to try to make this perfect. And I realized that it’s not perfect, and it’s never going to be perfect. Because let’s face it, every kid is different. Every county is different. Every school is different, every teacher is different. And so it’s not a one size fits all.”

After more than an hour of discussion over the bill’s language and potential changes to ensure compliance with federal requirements, the committee adjourned without taking further action on SB 614. With only four days left in the regular session, the bill’s future is unclear.

Language similar to, but less stringent than, SB 614 is included in House Bill 5262, also known as the Teacher’s Bill of Rights, which has cleared both education committees and is now pending in Senate Finance.

Senate Takes On School Discipline, Other Bills

Teachers may have the ability to remove troubled children from elementary school classrooms if Senate Bill 614 becomes law. The bill sparked a lot of debate on the chamber floor. It gives kindergarten through sixth grade teachers the ability to remove children from classes or from school if they are exhibiting certain behavior like threatening teachers or classmates or otherwise creating an unsafe learning environment.

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is the lead sponsor of this bill and a school teacher herself. She said the bill is to help address the teacher shortage in the state.

“One of the major issues that we are seeing is that teachers are leaving the profession in droves,” Grady said.

She said the number one reason they are leaving is teachers don’t feel they are given the authority in addressing disturbances in the classroom.

“We’re seeing violent and threatening behaviors in students as young as kindergarten that we’ve never seen before. How will this address it? This helps give the teacher a voice,” Grady said.

She said that often an administrator will remove the child from the class, and then put them right back.

“This gives teachers more of a voice to say, I feel unsafe, this child is being violent, my other students are unsafe, and they need to be removed from the classroom for today,” Grady said.

However, some opponents of the bill, like state school board members and the Kanawha County Schools General Counsel, say that this bill takes students out of the best environment for them – the learning environment – where they are surrounded by people trained to help children.

Others like Sen. Mike Woeflel, D-Cabell, questioned why this bill is not accompanied with funding or other initiatives to help children who are being disruptive in the classroom.

“If you have a child that’s misbehaving to this point,” Woeflel said. “He or she has other issues that are giving rise to this behavior and needs resources to address those issues. So it seems to me there would be funding here for counseling or intervention within the family or there’s no funding that goes to implement this bill.”

There is a shortage of school counselors in the state. Currently, there are 306 students for every one counselor in West Virginia public school systems.

Senate Bill 378

Another notable bill before the full Senate was Senate Bill 378, which would fine anyone smoking in the car in the presence of someone under the age of 16.

Lead sponsor of the bill, Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, and a pulmonologist, said he has received letters in support of the bill. He read excerpts from a letter on the Senate floor from a man in Mingo County whose parents smoked in the car with him.

“He too, grew up in a car full of that heavy smoke,” Takubo said. “It made him so short of breath, so constricted, that it made him cough to the point of vomiting, amongst other things. Then [he] went on to say his brother died of lung cancer. Another sister with brain cancer died of emphysema.”

The bill states the fine for smoking in the car with a minor would be $25.

He said the bill will double as a public service announcement to parents so they rethink smoking in the car with their children present.

However, Mike Azinger, R-Wood, said this is a violation of parental rights.

“Parents make this decision over their children, in their vehicle,” Azinger said. “This is where the state has no business going. So I would urge a no vote.”

The bill passed with 25 – 8. .

Senate Bill 590

Currently a city, county, or municipality could set a minimum wage higher than the state minimum wage of $8.75. A bill passed by the Senate Monday seeks to change that.

Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, voted for the bill. He said because there are currently no municipalities in the state that have their own minimum wage, this is a preventative measure. He said the bill protects both business and low income earners.

“If you have a state minimum wage, and some municipality says, ‘nope, the minimum wage here is twice that’,” Trump said. “It hurts the people in that municipality, because jobs go away. It eliminates jobs. And that’s what we want to prevent, make sure nothing like that ever happens.”

Air Monitoring, Trans Rights And Babydog, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, we are back with more coverage of the West Virginia Legislature. Plus, we’ll discuss a failed Senate bill that aimed to increase border security, a debt owed by one of Gov. Jim Justice’s companies, and ongoing medical difficulties facing the governor’s bulldog, Babydog.

On this West Virginia Week, we are back with more coverage of the West Virginia Legislature, where bills regarding school discipline, gender identity and air monitoring continue to spark debate. We’ll revisit conversations with some of the lawmakers helming these bills.

Plus, we’ll discuss a failed Senate bill that aimed to increase border security, a debt owed by one of Gov. Jim Justice’s companies, and ongoing medical difficulties facing the governor’s bulldog, Babydog.

Jack Walker is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

New Disciplinary Measures Would Extend To Elementary Grades

Student discipline continues to be an issue in West Virginia schools, and lawmakers continue to try and address the issue through legislation. A bill in the state Senate is trying to expand on a law that was passed last year.

House Bill 2890 passed the legislature in 2023 and gave school teachers and administrators more leeway in school discipline. But the law that allows a teacher to remove a disruptive student to a different environment to protect the integrity of the class only applies to grades six through 12 and educators say more needs to be done.

Tuesday morning, the Senate Education Committee discussed Senate Bill 614, which intends to expand the ability to remove disruptive students to the elementary level, from kindergarten through sixth grade.

Committee Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is the bill’s lead sponsor and said discipline is the number one issue teachers bring to her, and is driving them to leave the profession.

“Teachers who have been teaching for 25 plus years have said ‘I’ve had enough, I’m done. I feel like my hands are tied. I do not have the backing of my administrators,’” Grady said. “A lot of our principals are great but a lot of the comments have been ‘My principal feels like we can love these kids so much that it’s going to change their behavior.’ God bless them for that because that’s what we try to do. But in reality, we can’t. A lot of them, we can’t change the behavior just by love.”

The bill requires that once a teacher determines that a student’s violent, threatening or intimidating behavior is creating an unsafe environment, then the teacher may take action. The student will be removed from the classroom for the remainder of the school day, parents will be notified to pick the student up from school – preferably immediately – and the student will not be allowed to ride the bus.

“If the student is not picked up by the end of the day, the principal or other district employee shall notify law enforcement,” the bill continues.

A student’s removal from the classroom under the bill would result in an automatic suspension for the next one to three school days. Alternative learning accommodations are then made and once that is done, the student may not return to school until a risk assessment is done. Even then the student’s return to school is on a provisional basis of five to 10 days, and if another incident occurs within the time frame, the student will return to the alternative learning environment for the remainder of the school year.

If the principal or vice principal disagree with the teacher, the teacher may provide documentation and appeal to the county superintendent.

Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, invited Lindsey McIntosh, general counsel for Kanawha County Schools, to speak on the bill. She brought up several concerns, including a lack of funding for behavioral intervention programs required by the bill as well as no clear definition of the violent, threatening or intimidating behavior that could have students removed.

“They can’t express their emotions correctly, K through sixth grade,” McIntosh said. “I’ve had students that will literally say, ‘I’m gonna kill you.’ They don’t mean they’re gonna actually kill you. They just mean that they, again, can’t express their emotions correctly, and they use that term because that’s the term that they hear. That could be considered violent or intimidating.”

McIntosh went on to say that the law’s requirement of suspension took administrators out of a serious disciplinary decision, and would take students out of the best environment for them.

“I think the law changed last year to allow more teacher input on that issue,” she said. “However, when we’re talking about suspensions, those are always made or should always be made by an administrator just for consistency’s sake.”

Appeals to the county superintendent was also a sticking point for McIntosh, who pointed out the significant burden that it would create in Kanawha County.

“This is the hard part about writing laws,” she said. “You’re writing them for the smallest county which may experience this maybe three or four times a year. We would experience this probably 10 times, I would say, a week. So for the superintendent to have to go in, get to that level of discipline would be a lofty assignment.”

Kanawha County Schools is the state’s largest school district with more than 23,000 students enrolled, accounting for close to 10 percent of the state’s public school enrollment.

Committee members, including Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, stated their support for the bill and ultimately for teachers.

“I have confidence in our teachers,” he said. “Many of them are certified or trained or experienced, and as far as fleshing out the language when a kindergarten through sixth grade teacher in elementary school determines that the behavior of a student is violent, threatening, intimidating towards staff or peers or creates an unsafe learning environment or impedes another student’s ability to learn in a safe environment. That’s pretty clear.”

Trump moved to lay the bill over to allow more time to work on language. All other senators spoke in favor of the bill and voted down Trump’s motion.

Grady conceded that the bill was imperfect but necessary for the sake of teachers. She said educators cannot put the needs of one disruptive student over those of the dozens of other children in the classroom.

“Is this a perfect bill? Absolutely not,” Grady said. “It’s introduced today or it’s on the committee agenda today, because I worked with counsel, I bless him, to try to get it perfect. And I realize we can’t get it perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. But does it solve the problem of what teachers are bringing to me? Yes, they feel like it does.”

The bill was recommended to the full Senate with the recommendation it pass. The committee adjourned shortly after approving SB 614 without taking up any of the other four bills on the agenda for the day.