Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=sb416%20intr.htm&yr=2005&sesstype=RS&i=416
Timestamp: 2020-05-27 03:02:29
Document Index: 54833484

Matched Legal Cases: ['§5', '§5', '§5', '§5', '§5', '§18', '§18', '§5', '§5']

on Health and Human Resources; then to the Committee on Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §5-1E-1, §5-1E-2, §5-1E-3, §5-1E-4 and §5-1E-5; and to amend and reenact §18-2-6a and §18-2-7a of said code, all relating to promoting healthy lifestyles; creating a Healthy Lifestyles Office in the Department of Education and the Arts; establishing the functions of the Office; creating a special revenue account; establishing a Voluntary Menu Labeling Program; requiring physical activity in the schools; and encouraging the use of health foods and beverages in the vending machines of schools.
There is hereby created the Office of Healthy Lifestyles within the Department of Education and the Arts. The management of this office shall be provided in the manner determined by the Secretary of the Department of Education and the Arts to be in the best interest of the state and its citizens.
(a) Establish a Healthy Lifestyle Coalition to assure consistency of the public health and private sector approach to dealing with programs that address the problems that affect overweight and obese individuals; to provide a forum for discussing the issues that affect healthy lifestyles and to identify best practices that can be replicated. By the first day of July, two thousand five, the Governor shall appoint members of the Coalition whose terms shall be for a period of four years, and the members may be reappointed to a second term. The terms may be staggered by the Governor to assure continuity of experience on the coalition. Members may not be compensated but shall receive reimbursement for expenses incurred while performing the business of the coalition. The First Lady of West Virginia serves as a special advisor to the Coalition. The Coalition shall meet monthly for at least the first eighteen months of the Coalition to develop and implement an action plan to meet the goals established by the Coalition;
(b) Establish a clinical advisory committee to assure a unified approach using the latest research to assure consistency in program development;
(c) Establish a voluntary menu labeling program for restaurants in the state pursuant to the provisions of this article;
(d) Coordinate higher education training programs for dietary and exercise physiology students with rural health care providers;
(e) Coordinate existing health promotion initiatives to assure clear, concise and consistent communication;
(f) Solicit, accept and expend grants, gifts, bequests, donations and other funds from any source for programs that will enable the state to accomplish the goals of this program;
(g) Develop a cross-agency series of goals to ensure consistency throughout the system of providers and agencies working in the area of improving lifestyles;
(h) Establish as a goal to increase the prevalence of healthy weight among all people in the state because obesity leads to diabetes, heart disease, strokes and kidney failure. These diseases, often arising in older age as a result of unhealthy lifestyles that began during a person's youth, place an undue financial burden on individuals, the health care industry and state health care programs;
(i) Consider the resources of the local health departments and recommend ongoing relationships, as appropriate, between local health departments, family resource networks, faith-based organizations, cooperative extension services, farm bureaus and other health care providers;
(j) Encourage the development of incentives for participation in employee wellness programs. Incentives may be based upon, but should not be limited to, the employee's completion of health questionnaires or participating in healthy lifestyles initiatives, and may use experiences of successful initiatives that have occurred in this state. The action plan should include among its targets, state government employees in this incentive program;
(k) Build upon existing initiatives that focus on any of the coalition's goals, soliciting input from these initiatives and eliminating duplication of efforts;
(l) Report its progress to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resource Accountability.
§5-1E-4. Voluntary menu labeling program.
(a) The West Virginia Healthy Lifestyles program will develop a menu labeling program. The program will develop a universally recognized logo to be marketed to the public indicating participating restaurants. The program will work with state facilities which serve food, which are hereby mandated to participate in the first phase of the program. A list of dieticians shall be made available to participants to provide the nutritional analysis to appropriately label menu items.
(b) Beginning the first day of July, two thousand five, those restaurants who voluntarily choose to participate in the menu labeling program shall label their menu items with the total number of calories, the grams of saturated fat and trans fat, grams of carbohydrates and milligrams of sodium, per serving, as usually prepared and offered for sale. This information shall be listed in a clear, conspicuous manner adjacent to each food or beverage item on a standard printed menu or on a menu board system or similar signage adjacent to each item. This labeling is not required of condiments, daily specials or temporary menu items.
(c) Upon submitting the labeled menu to the Office of Healthy Lifestyles, the universally recognized logo shall be issued to participating restaurants to be placed on the door or window of the establishment.
(d) Marketing to public employees shall take place through all state agencies: Provided, That the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency, the Bureau for Medical Services, and the West Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission shall aggressively market this program to their members for the purposes of health promotion among their members.
(e) The Office of Healthy Lifestyles shall report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability the number of participants, the impact on menu design as established by survey of participating facilities and the results of consumer satisfaction surveys all designed by the Office of Healthy Lifestyles.
(a) In order to generate funding for necessary programs and supplies, county boards may permit the sale of healthy beverages and soft drinks in county high schools except during breakfast and lunch periods. as follows:
(1) During a school day, soft drinks may not be sold in areas accessible to students in an elementary school, middle school or junior high school through vending machines on the premises, in school stores or in school canteens or through fund raisers by students, teachers, groups or by any other means.
(2) Those high schools which permit the sale of soft drinks through vending machines must also offer for sale healthy beverages in an amount equal to the number of soft drinks offered for sale.
(3) The sale of such healthy beverages and soft drinks shall be in compliance with the rules of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program of the State Board and the Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, which became effective on the seventeenth day of June, one thousand nine hundred eighty-five: Provided, That, if under such the rules, the sale of soft drinks shall become becomes prohibited, such the rules shall may not prohibit the sale of soft drinks in high schools in the state of West Virginia. Seventy-five percent of the profits from the sale of healthy beverages and soft drinks shall be allocated by a majority vote of the faculty senate of each school and twenty-five percent of the profits from the sale of healthy beverages and soft drinks shall be allocated to the purchase of necessary supplies by the principal of the school.
(2) "Healthy beverage" means water, one hundred percent fruit juice, low-fat milk, and any beverage that contains no more than ten grams of sugar per serving.
(b) As a result of these findings, the State Department of Education shall ensure that each child enrolled in the public schools of this state actively participates in physical education classes during the school year to the level of their abilities as follows:
(3) Grade nine to and including grade twelve. -- Not less than one full course credit of physical education, including physical exercise and age appropriate physical activities which shall be required for graduation and the opportunity to enroll in an elective lifetime physical education course: Provided, That children participating in interscholastic sports are not subject to the provisions of this subdivision.
(c) Enrollment in physical education classes and activities required by the provisions of this section shall not exceed, and shall be consistent with, state guidelines for enrollment in all other subjects and classes.
(d) The State Board of Education shall prescribe a program within the existing health and physical education program which incorporates the testing, awards recognition, fitness events and incentive programs designed under the auspices of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and which requires the participation through grade nine of each student and of each school in the state in both the challenge program and the state champion program of the council. Other acceptable alternatives for testing include the Fitnessgram Fitness Test and the Physical Activity Lifetime Award(PALA) record. The program shall include the modified test for exceptional students. Each school in the state shall participate in National Physical Fitness and Sports Month in May of each year and shall make every effort to involve the community it serves in the related events.
(e) All students shall have their body mass index measured and reported to the State Board of Education after training or written documentation is provided on the appropriate methodology for assessing the body mass index.
NOTE: The purpose of the bill is to create the West Virginia Healthy Act of 2005. It includes the creation of the Healthy Lifestyles Office in the Department of Education and the Arts, defines its responsibilities, establishes a special revenue account, and establishes a voluntary menu labeling program. In addition, this bill creates standards for physical activity in schools and provides incentives for schools which provide healthy foods and beverages.
§§5-1E-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.