Bill Text: WV SB217 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Allowing private schools option of making vaccinations required for enrollment

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-12 - To Health and Human Resources [SB217 Detail]

Download: West_Virginia-2022-SB217-Introduced.html

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WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2022 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

Senate Bill 217

By Senator Maynard

[Introduced January 12, 2022; referred
to the Committee on Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on Education]

A BILL to amend and reenact §16-3-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §18-28-2 and §18-28-6 of said code, all relating to giving private schools the option of making vaccinations required for enrollment; and requiring private schools to maintain annual attendance records.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

CHAPTER 16. PUBLIC HEALTH.

ARTICLE 3. PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE AND OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

§16-3-4. Compulsory immunization of school children; information disseminated; offenses; penalties.

(a) Whenever a resident birth occurs, the commissioner shall promptly provide parents of the newborn child with information on immunizations mandated by this state or required for admission to a public, private, and parochial school in this state or a state-regulated child care center.

(b) Except as hereinafter provided, a child entering a public school or a state-regulated child care center in this state must shall be immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough.

(c) No child or person may be admitted or received in any of the public schools of the state or a state-regulated child care center until he or she has been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough or produces a certificate from the commissioner granting the child or person an exemption from the compulsory immunization requirements of this section.

(d) Any public school or state-regulated child care center personnel having information concerning any person who attempts to be enrolled in a school or state-regulated child care center without having been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough shall report the names of all such persons to the commissioner.

(e) Persons may be provisionally enrolled under minimum criteria established by the commissioner so that the person’s immunization may be completed while missing a minimum amount of school. No person shall may be allowed to enter a public school without at least one dose of each required vaccine.

(f) County health departments shall furnish the biologicals for this immunization for children of parents or guardians who attest that they cannot afford or otherwise access vaccines elsewhere.

(g) Health officers and physicians who provide vaccinations must present the person vaccinated with a certificate free of charge showing that they have been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough, or he or she may give the certificate to any person or child whom he or she knows to have been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough.

(h) The commissioner is authorized to may grant, renew, condition, deny, suspend, or revoke exemptions to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section, on a statewide basis, upon sufficient medical evidence that immunization is contraindicated or there exists a specific precaution to a particular vaccine.

(1) A request for an exemption to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section must shall be accompanied by the certification of a licensed physician stating that the physical condition of the child is such that immunization is contraindicated or there exists a specific precaution to a particular vaccine.

(2) The commissioner is authorized to may appoint and employ an Immunization Officer to make determinations on request for an exemption to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section, on a statewide basis, and delegate to the Immunization Officer the authority granted to the commissioner by this subsection.

(3) A person appointed and employed as the Immunization Officer must shall be a physician licensed under the laws of this state to practice medicine.

(4) The Immunization Officer’s decision on a request for an exemption to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section may be appealed to the State Health Officer.

(5) The final determination of the State Health Officer is subject to a right of appeal pursuant to the provisions of §29A-5-1 et seq. of this code.

(i) A physician who provides any person with a false certificate of immunization against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $100.

CHAPTER 18. EDUCATION.

ARTICLE 28. PRIVATE, PAROCHIAL OR CHURCH SCHOOLS, OR SCHOOLS OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER.

§18-28-2. Attendance; health and safety regulations.

The following is applicable to private, parochial, or church schools or schools of a religious order:

(a) Each school shall observe a minimum instructional term of 180 days with an average of five hours of instruction per day;

(b) Each school shall:

(1) May require students to be immunized against the same diseases that students are required to be immunized against before entering public school, and make and maintain annual attendance and disease immunization records for each pupil enrolled and regularly attending classes; and

(2) Shall make and maintain annual attendance records for each pupil enrolled and regularly attending classes. The attendance records shall be made available to the parents or legal guardians;

(c) Upon the request of the county superintendent, a school (or a parents organization composed of the parents or guardians of children enrolled in the school) shall furnish to the county board a list of the names and addresses of all children enrolled in the school between the ages of seven and 16 years;

(d) Attendance by a child at any school which complies with this article satisfies the requirements of compulsory school attendance;

(e) Each school is subject to reasonable fire, health and safety inspections by state, county and municipal authorities as required by law, and is required to comply with the West Virginia school bus safety regulations; and

(f) Each school shall establish, file, and update a school specific crisis response plan which complies with the requirements established for it by the state board and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management pursuant to §18-9F-9 of this code.

§18-28-6. Requirements exclusive.

No private, parochial, or church school or school operated by any other religious group or body as part of its religious ministry or other nonpublic school which complies with the requirements of this article shall be is subject to any other provision of law relating to education except requirements of law respecting fire, safety, and sanitation. and immunization

 

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to give private schools the option of making vaccinations required for enrollment.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.