photo by: Steven Allen Adams

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signs Senate Bill 199, addressing student discipline issues, while fifth-grade students at Ripley Elementary School look on.

RIPLEY, W.Va. — Surrounded by fifth-graders at Ripley Elementary School Tuesday morning, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a bill championed by Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady addressing student discipline concerns.

Senate Bill 199 passed the state Senate 33-0 and the House of Delegates 94-3. Morrisey said the bill creates a streamlined process for addressing student behavior, safety and intervention in classrooms.

“One of the most important things for a child to succeed in school is having a quality teacher in the classroom, but we also need to ensure that teachers aren’t being held back … by what’s going on within those classrooms,” Morrisey said.

“One of the things that we constantly hear is that it helps when the teachers can have control over the classrooms,” he continued. “We know that when students are distracted, misbehaving or otherwise inhibiting their learning environment, teachers need to have the tools at their disposal in order to regain control.”

SB 199 is similar to a bill that died in the final hours of last year’s legislative session over disagreements between the House and Senate. Grady, an elementary school teacher who was the lead sponsor of both bills, said she was pleased the House, Senate and Department of Education could come back together and craft a better bill.

“It is very rewarding today, especially knowing how different the bill came out than last year and how much better it is,” said Grady, R-Mason.

“I really think it’s a great piece of legislation that’s really going to help our teachers and help our students and our schools in general.”

“I know this had gone through the process last year, and at the beginning a lot of people said, ‘You need to take a really close look at that behavioral bill,” Morrisey said. “The more I looked at it, everyone said the bill this year is so much better and solid. That’s because some people really cared and did a lot of great work. So, I applaud the legislative effort that went into this.”

State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt thanked Grady and other lawmakers.

“We worked really hard all through last session and into this session to make sure that we could get something that was going to be good for our schools, for our kids and for our teachers,” she said. “I think we have something in place that’s really going to support our teachers and make a difference.”

SB 199 requires a student in grades kindergarten through sixth whose behavior is deemed violent, threatening or intimidating to be referred to a school counselor, school social worker, school psychologist, behavior specialist, board-certified behavior analyst or other qualified employee to conduct a functional behavioral assessment to determine the causes of the behavior and establish a two-week behavioral plan for the student.

If the student shows no improvement after the two-week period, administrators and behavior experts would re-evaluate the plan. If the student shows no improvement after another two weeks, the student would be placed in a behavioral intervention program. The bill allows schools to partner with a licensed behavior health agency as an option, meeting regularly with the school’s social worker.

The bill allows for the creation of alternative learning centers in counties or expansion of existing centers, subject to funding, to address the behaviors of chronically disruptive students. It allows multiple counties to share use of an alternative learning center.

For counties without alternative learning centers, the bill mandates specific disciplinary steps when a teacher determines a student’s behavior crosses over into violent or dangerous actions, including immediate removal from the classroom for the remainder of the day, parental notification and a three-day suspension.

The bill also updated a 2023 law dealing with middle and high school discipline. A student removed from a classroom three times in a month would receive an in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension or placement in an alternative learning center. The bill also permits for the expulsion of a student, but only if repeated behavior occurs. The bill allows for a teacher or principal to come to the expulsion hearing and allows both to appeal to the county superintendent over any disagreement.

State Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, shares the Fourth Senatorial District with Grady, which includes Mason County and parts of Cabell, Putnam, and Jackson counties. Tarr praised Grady for her persistence in getting SB 199 across the finish line of the 60-day legislative session.

“She’s been working this for two years and with a team around her saying this is something absolutely that has to get done to make sure we helped classrooms across West Virginia, because the challenges in the classroom have changed so much over the years,” Tarr said.

Morrisey said he was committed to continuing to work on other educational issues during his first term, including improving educational attainment and competitive teacher pay.

“We know that West Virginia unfortunately ranks nationally near the bottom in key metrics like educational attainment, teacher pay and literacy,” Morrisey said. “Reversing course in these areas, that’s a major priority from my administration, and I know that the Legislature shares that sentiment. I pledge to you that I am going to do whatever it takes to ensure that West Virginia kids excel.”