Senate’s school discipline bill, crafted by a teacher, faces concerns for cost and students

Senate Education Chair Amy Grady (left), a public school teacher and bill sponsor, said the Senate Bill 614 is necessary to create safe learning environments and address high teacher turnover rates. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography)

The Senate will consider a bill that backs elementary teachers’ decision to remove violent or threatening students. The legislation could cost cash-strapped school districts, which would be on the hook for creating alternative learning environments for removed students.

Senate Education Chair Amy Grady, a public school teacher and bill sponsor, said the bill is necessary to create safe learning environments and address high teacher turnover rates. The legislation would show trust in teachers to know what’s best for their classrooms, she said.

“We are losing teachers by the day,” said Grady, R-Mason, on Tuesday during a Senate Education Committee meeting.

She continued, “If there’s one [child] that’s creating a huge disturbance that’s violent or intimidating, I feel for that child, and we should be compassionate to that child. But what about the other 19?”

A teacher’s union representative previously said addressing student discipline was a key issue for teachers this Legislative Session.

According to the bill, Senate Bill 614 , teachers in kindergarten through sixth grade could remove students from their classrooms because of violent or threatening behavior toward staff or classmates. Additionally, students could be removed for interfering with other students’ ability to learn.

Removed students would be sent to a behavioral intervention program, which may not be available in every county. If the county doesn’t have a program or enough staff to serve the child, the student would be suspended for one to three school days. Parents would be notified, the student would be prohibited from riding the bus and law enforcement may be notified if the student wasn’t picked up by the end of day.

Pushback against the measure largely focused on the potential involvement of law enforcement and cost for schools. Additional concerns arose about the bill’s broad terms like “threatening” that could lead to non-uniform student discipline.

Lindsey McIntosh, general counsel for Kanawha County Schools, stressed to lawmakers that behavior terms needed to be defined.

“I get that we’re talking about truly violent behavior. But unless these things are defined, we’re talking about, ‘I’m going to kill you for a pepperoni roll,’ then that kid is out for three days for saying that,” McIntosh said.

Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, questioned if the committee should briefly table the bill to work out some specifics, saying the wording “ unintentionally may create some problems in some of the counties.” H is motion was voted down.

The Senate Education Committee approved the legislation and sent it to the Senate floor for consideration; Trump voted no on the measure.

Not every county has alternative education program

The bill would require counties to utilize behavioral intervention programs, which can utilize social workers, counselors and other staff.

Only 13 of the state’s 55 counties have an elementary alternative discipline program, according to West Virginia Department of Education Communications Director Christy Day. Around 10 to 12 counties hope to add programs this year, she said.

While Day could not provide an average cost of the programs, she said that one in Raleigh County cost $275,000.

The bill didn’t come with a funding request.

Grady said it will be expensive in upfront costs.

She wants the remaining countries without those programs to dip into their county’s opioid settlement funds to pay it. West Virginia is expected to receive more than $1 billion in funds meant to be for programs and initiatives that respond to the ongoing drug and overdose epidemic in the state.

“I have encouraged schools to reach out to their county commission who already have some of that funding to see if it can be used for that sort of thing,” she said. “We also encourage them to apply for grants and we go from there. We are looking at all these options where it doesn’t take more money from revenue.”

Despite the fact that West Virginia spends a larger percent of its taxpayer money on schools than other states, schools have grappled with funding shortfalls. It has been made worse by the state’s declining population, waning pandemic-era funds and the likely loss of more than $21 million with students who are opting for the state’s education savings account program.

A news release from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia, Black Policy Day and other groups opposing the legislation said that it came with no funding for school districts to develop alternative help for students.

“Without additional funding many school districts will remove students, and then subject more vulnerable children to law enforcement interactions and suspensions and expulsions,” the release said. “There is no guidance nor resources outlined in this legislation which would give students with behavioral issues the support they need.”

McIntosh shared her own concerns with lawmakers about funding along with staffing shortages. Kanawha County Schools is already struggling to staff in-school suspensions, or ISS, she said.

“We are having to pull our current teachers to do ISS,” she said. “In Kanawha County … we are blessed to have people who work specifically with student behaviors and modifying those behaviors. But, it is very difficult to retain people who want to address these behaviors in the school setting.”

Grady said that the bill wasn’t perfect but believed it was a good step at addressing the problem.

“I think this is the closest we can get to what teachers want, what I think helps and what holds people accountable,” she said after the vote. “Are there going to be unintended consequences? Probably, but I hope they are minimal.” She added that the legislation could be edited in the future.

The House of Delegates last week passed its own elementary student discipline bill, House Bill 4776 .

The Senate will not take up the House’s measure, Grady said, due to the bill’s use of “disruptive,” which she feels is too broad to apply to elementary students.

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