The Senate Education committee quickly advanced two bills dealing with child sexual abuse and child sexual violence prevention during a Tuesday morning meeting.

Senate Bill 187 would create a new felony for any public or private school teacher, principal, counselor, coach, or other employee who engages in sexual intercourse, sexual intrusion, or sexual contact with any student regardless of the student’s age. Student consent, or occurrence of the act off of school property or outside of a school function do not qualify as a defense under the proposed law.

The proposed penalties under the bill would be 1-5 years in prison and a fine up to $5,000. A conviction would trigger the forfeiture of any teaching or other certificate.

The idea for the bill came from a county prosecutor that approached lawmakers after he received information that two teachers were involved in a relationship with students. However, because the students were 18 years of age, there was no mechanism to charge the teachers.

The other piece of legislation advanced Monday, Senate Bill 124, would require the state Board of Education to develop a program in dating violence prevention and sexual violence prevention for students in grades 7-12.

Under the proposed law, the state board must also post links on its website to free curriculum that covers the required instruction. Parents also must be able to inspect the curriculum upon request.

The bill would also require four hours of in-service training in these areas for any county school board nurse, teacher, counselor, school psychologist, or administrator.

Senate Bill 124 advanced to the full Senate while Senate Bill 187 moves on for consideration the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon would require some people in West Virginia to provide DNA samples when arrested.

Current law requires those convicted of felonies in crimes of burglary, violence, or an offense with a minor victim to submit a DNA sample.

Senate Bill 53 would require the sample at the time of arrest. The bill would also require anyone convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors — such as involuntary manslaughter or sex offenses — since spring of 1995, to submit a DNA sample.

The Senate passed a similar bill during the 2022 session but it did not complete legislative action in the House of Delegates.

Ashley Spence, founder of the DNA Justice Project and survivor of a rape when she was 19, gave compelling testimony Monday, telling the committee that her attacker was discovered years later thanks to a national DNA database when he was arrested for a subsequent crime.

Lawmakers noted that in addition to catching those who have committed a crime, the DNA analysis could also be used to free those falsely convicted.

Melissa Runyan, supervisor for the database section at the West Virginia State Police forensic lab, described current law, informing the committee that a person convicted of certain offenses must provide a DNA sample, fingerprints and other identifying information. The information is processed, given a unique number and entered into a localized system at the lab with a roughly 30-day turnaround time.

Eventually the information is added to the national DNA database, where it is determined if the sample matches any other cases.

Senate Bill 53 also would allow anyone who is subjected to DNA testing but later acquitted or has charges dismissed to seek a court order removing their DNA from the database. If a person does not seek this process, their DNA records could still be used by police investigating other cases under this legislation.

The committee amended the bill Monday to include an application process by which someone can seek expungement at no cost and to establish a timeline for the information’s removal. Federal laws requiring DNA removal if charges are dismissed or someone is acquitted are also in place, according to Spence.

The bill now advances to be considered in the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed a bill Monday afternoon that would tweak state tax code to bring an additional $15-$25 million per year to the Division of Highways.

Currently, the Division of Highways doesn’t pay sales tax, however road construction and maintenance materials are taxed, so when the DOH pays contractors for work, it’s currently paying taxes built into those contract costs.

Currently that money goes into the general revenue fund. This bill, Senate Bill 7, would simply take that money and reimburse it back to the state road fund.

Committee counsel noted that this reimbursement program was in place from 2007-2018, but was ended by legislation that year.

Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston told the committee he believes the program was halted to deal with a budget crunch at the time, but now believes the state is in position to restore it, hopefully permanently.

“This bill simply returns money generated by road and bridge construction to the the state Road Fund in order to continue to produce more and more road construction and bridge construction,” Wriston said.

Wriston assured the committee that the DOH built this bill into its budget request and the impact on the general revenue fund should be accounted for in the governor’s fiscal year 2024 budget, currently being considered by the Legislature.

The legislation now moves on for consideration in Senate Finance.