HB 2939 West Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Remote Schools Support Act

HB 2939, the Remote Schools Support Act, creates a new definition for "extremely remote schools" in West Virginia and provides specific state funding to support them. The bill requires counties to keep these schools open by providing additional state aid, with enrollment in such schools counted as 2.5 students for funding calculations. It mandates state funding to cover building operations, extreme weather preparedness, and professional development for staff at these schools. This directly affects rural schools in sparse-density counties by altering how they receive state education funding to prevent closures.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 25, 2025 Last action Mar 19, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Committee Substitute · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to create the Remote Schools Support Act, which establishes a new legal definition for 'extremely remote schools' and mandates state funding to keep them open. Key changes include adding new density-based county classifications, updating the effective date for funding years, and introducing a prohibition on closing schools that meet the new remote criteria.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded from general remote school support to specifically targeting 'extremely remote schools' with a defined set of criteria, including distance requirements and minimum student enrollment.

DEFINITION

Added new definitions for 'extremely remote school', 'sparse-density county', 'low-density county', 'medium-density county', 'high-density county', 'technology integration specialist', 'state aid eligible personnel', and 'technology integration specialist'.

ELIGIBILITY

Established specific criteria for 'extremely remote schools' including being 20+ travel miles from other schools, located within the same county, and serving at least 20 students.

FISCAL

Created new funding provisions to support building operations, extreme weather preparedness, and professional development for rural multi-grade teaching environments.

REQUIREMENT

Added a prohibition preventing county boards from closing schools that qualify as 'extremely remote schools'.

TIMELINE

Updated the effective date language to apply to the 2019-2020 and 2025-2026 funding years, with provisions for prior funding years.

ENFORCEMENT

Added requirements for annual reporting to the State Superintendent and Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability regarding fund usage and program effectiveness.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 19, 2025

Committee

To House Finance

lower

Mar 19, 2025

Lower · Passed

By substitute, do pass, but first to Finance

lower

Mar 11, 2025

Committee

To House Education

lower

Feb 28, 2025

Committee

To House Educational Choice

lower

Feb 25, 2025

Committee

To House Education

lower

Feb 25, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in House

lower

Feb 25, 2025

Committee

To Education then Finance

lower

1 primary · 8 co-sponsors