HB 4485 West Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Allow education employees to donate sick leave to co-workers for maternity leave

HB 4485 allows public school and higher education employees in West Virginia to voluntarily donate accrued sick leave to coworkers taking maternity leave. The bill establishes a formal leave donation program where employees can transfer personal leave days to colleagues experiencing maternity leave or a catastrophic medical emergency, with specific rules: donors may transfer unlimited days to spouses but face limits for others, and unused donated days revert to the donor after the leave period ends. It prohibits using donated leave for retirement credit or insurance extensions and requires voluntary participation without coercion. This policy directly affects educators in K-12 schools and colleges who qualify for personal leave under state law.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 16, 2026 Last action Feb 20, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version Committee Substitute · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill was amended to expand its scope from public school educators to include higher education employees, aligning the leave donation rules between the two sectors. The committee substitute also updated the bill's title and origin details to reflect these changes and corrected a section number reference.
Scope change
The bill now applies to both public school personnel and higher education employees, whereas the introduced version only applied to the public school system.
SCOPE

Expanded applicability to include higher education employees in addition to public school educators.

DEFINITION

Updated the bill title and origin information to reflect the expanded scope and correct section references.

REQUIREMENT

Revised the definition of 'employee' in the higher education section to include classified, nonclassified, and faculty members eligible for sick leave.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
10
Key actions
0
Committee
6
Feb 20, 2026
Committee
To House Finance
lower
Feb 20, 2026
Committee
By substitute, do pass, but first to Finance
lower
Feb 8, 2026
Committee
To House Education
lower
Jan 19, 2026
Committee
To House Public Education
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Committee
To House Education
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Committee
To Education then Finance
lower
1 primary · 3 co-sponsors

Sponsors