The Board of Education seeks to provide a safe educational environment for BOTH students and staff. It is the Board’s intent to ensure that any student or member of the staff who contracts a communicable disease that is not communicated through casual contact will have his/her status in the County examined by an appropriate panel of resource people and that the rights of both the affected individual and those of other staff members and students will be acknowledged and respected.

For purposes of this policy, "noncasual-contact communicable disease" shall include:

In its effort to assist in the prevention and control of communicable diseases of any kind, the Board has established policies on Immunization, Hygienic Management, and Control of Casual-Contact Communicable Diseases. The purpose of this policy is to protect the health and safety of the students, County personnel, and the community at large from the spread of the above-mentioned diseases.

The Board seeks to keep students and staff members in school unless there is definitive evidence to warrant exclusion. When the Superintendent learns that a student or County employee may be infected with a noncasual-contact communicable disease, the Superintendent shall immediately consult with physician of the student/staff member and/or a health official from the state or county health department to obtain information as to whether the person is generally well enough to remain in school or poses no immediate threat to the school population because of the illness during the review panel process. If the physician is to be contacted, prior written permission shall be obtained from the parent or guardian of the student or from the student eighteen (18) years of age or older and from the employee. If it is determined by the health agency and/or the physician that the student or employee poses no immediate threat to the school population because of the illness, the student/employee shall be allowed to remain in the school setting until the review panel meets. If it is determined that the student/employee does pose a threat because of the illness, the student/employee shall be temporarily excluded from the school setting, following due process procedures established in the administrative guidelines, while the review panel meets. The Superintendent shall immediately contact the review panel to convene a meeting and shall submit to the parent/guardian or infected person, in writing, a notice of their rights as a review panel member and the method of appeal.

The review panel shall consist of:

The Superintendent or designee shall serve as the chairperson and designate the person who will write the "Proposal for Decision". The review panel shall convene within forty-eight (48) hours excluding weekends or holidays.

If the evidence is not sufficient to justify exclusion, the person shall remain in his/her current school environment unless threat to the person’s health or safety through exposure to other communicable diseases.

When the Superintendent learns that a disabled student may be infected with a noncasual-contact communicable disease, the I.E.P. Team will serve as the County’s representative on the communicable disease review panel which will be convened within forty-eight (48) hours.

The rights of any affected student, as well as those of any affected staff member, shall be protected in accordance with Federal and State laws on privacy, confidentiality, and due-process. In addition, the exclusion of any staff member or student from the District by the Superintendent’s decision based upon the recommendation of the panel in the Proposal for Decision will be done in accord with relevant section of West Virginia statutes and West Virginia Board of Education Policy 2423.

Within three (3) days, excluding weekends, of having received the recommendations from the Panel, the Superintendent shall either affirm, modify, or take exception to the Proposal for Decision unless a rehearing request on that Proposal has been made.

In the event the Superintendent takes exception to the Proposal for Decision, s/he shall prepare a written statement that sets forth the reasons for the exceptions and the bases for that decision.

The parent/guardian or affected person, if eighteen (18) years of age or more, and the Health Department official will be given a copy of the Superintendent’s Decision. The other review panel members will be given the opportunity to review the content of the Superintendent’s decision.

If the affected person is a special education student, the Superintendent shall convene an Individualized Education Planning Committee meeting to determine the appropriate program and services for the student based on the panel’s recommendations and the Superintendent’s decision. Placement of the student in the interim shall be based upon the recommendation of the Superintendent and the attending physician and/or Health Department official.

The parent, guardian or affected person who considers the Proposal for Decision unjust may request a rehearing, in writing, directed to the chair of the review panel within three (3) school days of the date of the Proposal for Decision. Grounds for requesting a rehearing are limited to:

The chair, within three (3) school days from the date of receipt of the request for rehearing shall either grant or deny the request for rehearing. If the request for rehearing is denied, the chair shall immediately submit the Proposal for Decision to the Superintendent. If the request for rehearing is granted, the chair shall reconvene the same panel that originally heard the matter within five (5) school days of the date the rehearing is granted.

Within three (3) school days after the rehearing, the chair shall submit the Proposal for Decision to the Superintendent. The parent/guardian or affected person will be given a copy of the Proposal. The review panel members will be given the opportunity to review the content of the Proposal for Decision.

The parent, guardian or affected person may request a reconsideration of the Superintendent’s decision within three (3) school days of the date the Superintendent’s decision was issued. The request shall be in writing and shall allege that the decision contains a substantial error of fact or that the decision is against the great weight of the evidence as set forth in the Proposal for Decision.

An oral presentation by the parent/guardian, affected person or their representative may be granted by the Superintendent.

The Superintendent shall grant or deny the request for reconsideration within three (3) school days after receipt of the request or within three (3) school days following the oral presentation, whichever is applicable.

The parent/guardian, affected person or their representative may make a final written appeal to the president of the Board of Education within five (5) school days after the Superintendent’s decision is issued. The Board shall meet within three (3) school days and hear the student/staff member’s appeal along with the Proposal for Decision and Superintendent’s decision. Within two (2) school days of the hearing, the Board shall render its decision in writing with copies sent to the Superintendent, health department official, and parent/guardian or affected person.

If the Proposal for Decision or the Superintendent’s decision is contrary to the majority opinion of the review panel, a majority of the panel has the right to appeal either the recommendation or the decision in the same manner stated in the Appeal Process set forth above.

Circumstances may warrant extended timelines if complete medical information is not available.

If the student with the disease is not attending school, the Board will provide an alternative delivery of school programs.

If the panel determines there is no risk of infection to the employee, the employee will be expected to participate in the delivery of the alternative program.

If the review panel determines there is a risk of infection through casual contact to the employee while delivering this program, the employee may be allowed the option not to serve in the situation. Alternative methods for delivery of school programs should be explored by the IEP team.

The review panel member who is serving as the advocate for the infected individual (or another person designated by the panel) will serve as the liaison between the student/staff member, family and attending physician as it relates to the school setting.

Employees of the County shall be expected to teach and provide other normal personal contract services in school to a student or to work with a school employee determined to have a disease known not to be communicable by casual contact unless a determination to the contrary is made by the review panel.

All persons involved in these procedures shall be required to treat all proceedings, deliberations, documents and information as confidential. Records of the proceedings and the decisions will be kept by the Superintendent in a sealed envelope with access limited to only those persons receiving the consent of the parent/guardian or affected person as provided by the Employee Right to Know Act and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.

Further, it is the Board’s policy that all students and staff members should maintain normal contact with an affected student or staff member whose continued presence in the school setting has been determined by this process.

The Board directs the Superintendent to develop an educational program for students, professional staff, and/or service personnel on the principal means by which noncasual-contact communicable diseases are transmitted, and the more effective methods for restricting and/or preventing these diseases.

The Superintendent shall include in this program those educational materials which advocate prevention through abstinence.

West Virginia Board of Education Policy 2423, § 126-51-1, et seq.